Harry Potter and Merlin's Castle
by Cat97Hermione
Summary: Harry is left at the Dursleys after Sirius's death. When He finally decides to take his destiny and training into his own hands, he gets help from a very unexpected source. Powerful!Super!Light!Harry. Dumbledore,Weasley & Granger bashing. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

_**Diagon Alley**_

It was a cool, clear day and everyone in Surrey was making the most of the weather. All except for one boy who was lying face down on his bed in number 4, Privet Drive. The boy's name was Harry Potter. Harry was not a 'normal' boy by any standards. You see, Harry Potter was a wizard- fresh from his 5th year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Even amongst other magical folk, though, Harry Potter was an unusual teenage boy. He was famous, famous for defeating the Darkest Wizard of the time at the age of one. However, the Dark Lord, who as known as Lord Voldemort (or You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as his name was too frightening to speak, apparently) had come back just over a year ago, and it was his latest murder that Harry was currently brooding over.

The bedroom was not the nicest place to in under normal circumstances, as his relatives were less than kind to Harry Potter. Now, it was ten times worse. The smallest bedroom was filthy- dirty clothing was scattered all over the floor, there was nicks in the furniture created in his frustration and bowls of old soup cluttered on the floor around the cat flap in his door, which had been put in place by his relatives to allow them to pass food in when he was locked in the room for extended periods of time. Harry's school trunk was lying open in the middle of the room, with belongings spilling out of it and his owl, Hedwig, was currently perched in her filthy cage looking disgusted. Lying on the unmade bed, face-down, was the boy in question, 15 year old Harry Potter who was currently muttering to himself.

"It's all my fault… all my ruddy fault… I should have checked… I should have learnt occlumency… I should have realised… Why didn't I stop him? All my fault… He's gone…" and he stopped there, quiet tears rolling down his cheeks.

'It's NOT your fault,' said a stubborn voice in his head. 'You checked, and Kreacher lied to you. You should have learnt occlumency, but you didn't realise its importance at the time. Snape was a terrible teacher, anyway. There was absolutely no way you could have realised you were going into a trap. You could not have stopped Sirius from coming to help you. He loved you, and could not have lived with himself if he stayed home whilst you were in danger and he was an adult. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT! Bellatrix killed him, it's her fault. Voldemort sent you the vision, blame him. Snape was a horrible occlumency teacher. Dumbledore didn't give you the information you needed. Sirius didn't take the duel seriously enough. Blame any one of them. Blame all of them! But don't blame yourself. You did the honourable thing, and went to the rescue of a man you believed to be in danger. This is war. There are deaths. People will die, and there is nothing you can do about it. If you blame yourself for every fatality in a war, you are beyond stupid.' Harry wasn't buying it.

"But I killed him," he chocked.

'Oh? You held the wand? You co-ordinated the attacks? No. You didn't. I fail to see how you killed him. Blame anyone! Blame Dumbledore! It's not your fault,' said the voice.

"Dumbledore," Harry growled, thinking of all the information the old man had withheld from him, and the prophecy. "No one else is going to die for me. I am the only one that can end this. Dumbledore isn't going to help me, he's proven that much. So, I do this on my own. As of now, I'm in training to defeat the darkest wizard of our time," said Harry, with conviction. He then got up, and began to clean the pigsty he called a room.

'Good man,' growled the voice in his head. (That sounded suspiciously like Moody, now he thought about it) Two hours later, the room was unrecognisable, so Harry sat down to devise a schedule. The parchment soon read;

6.00- run

7.00- breakfast

7.15- Defence against the Dark Arts

10.00- Potions/Herbology

12.00- Transfiguration

2.00- lunch

2.30- Charms/ Occlumency

5.00- Gymnasium

7.00- dinner

7.30- Holiday work/ other subjects

Harry decided that he would begin by reading and summarising all of his textbooks and any other books that he owned while he devised a plan to get himself to Diagon Alley for some proper supplies. Once that was decided, Harry made his way to the local gymnasium. There, he enrolled in a fitness course from 5-6, and for good measure, a gymnastics class from 6-7, thinking it would held him dodge curses- he wasn't sure that his shields were strong enough against Voldemort- and he wasn't planning on testing that theory. Being able to dodge a few more killing curses was definitely an added benefit! Harry arrived home, and pulled out his first year Defence book.

At quarter to 5 in the afternoon, as Harry was jogging to his first fitness class, he thought over all he had read today. He had never bothered to read any of his books cover to cover once he started school, and hadn't realised how much he had missed! Suddenly, Hermione's 'knowledge' didn't seem so impressive.

Two days later, it was Sunday, and Harry was ready to put his Diagon Alley plan into action. His repaired alarm clock rang at 4 in the morning, and he quickly silenced it so that it didn't wake the Dursleys. He dressed quickly and grabbed his muggle wallet, (last year he had taken a large chunk of his money out secretly, and converted half of it into muggle money so he would never have a problem in either world) wand and invisibility cloak which he had set aside the night before. At 4.15, he crept out the back door, threw his invisibility cloak on and vaulted over the back fence into the neighbour's yard. Harry continued to 'yard hop,' until he felt he was far enough away from number 4. Then, he crept out onto the street and called the Knight Bus. He pulled off his cloak and handed Stan his 11 sickles and took a seat at the back of the bus, where Stan obviously decided he wasn't interesting enough to have a discussion with, and 10 minutes later, Harry was entering the Leaky Cauldron, his fake name of Dudley Evans still unused. He crept through to the back room and let himself into the alley. He knew that he would need to get more money before he did the bulk of his shopping, but a disguise was more important. When the majority of the shops were open and he Alley was full of people, it would be wishful thinking to hope he would go unrecognised. He found a section of 'all night' shops, and to his delight, spotted an oculist amongst them. The sign outside the dusty shop said; _Emerald Eyes- Everything and Anything you need!_ So Harry went inside, knowing that his glasses and eyes were very recognisable. The sign wasn't joking- the oculist had everything! Glasses, contacts, potions, magical eyes… Harry was so busy looking at everything; he didn't notice the owner coming up to him until a voice in his ear said;

"Do you need anything, boy?" the owner sounded exhausted.

"Um… yeah… I need… to replace my glasses… but… I don't know… what do I replace them with?" mumbled Harry.

"Hmmm… They are a little too recognisable, Mr. Potter," remarked the oculist.

"You're telling me," complained Harry, "and call me Harry, please. You make it sound like I'm in trouble!"

"Alright, Harry, but call me Jim. Now, your eyes are, as I said earlier, very recognisable. If you just want to correct your vision, we have potions you can use, or clear contacts if you prefer that. If, and I suggest this, you want to make yourself a little less recognisable so you can make your way around the alley more comfortably, we can put a colour-change charm on the clear contacts. It's not vision repairing, but you will be able to change your eye colour." Said Jim the oculist.

"Sounds great, can I get the contacts with a colour change charm? How much are they?" asked Harry excitedly. These would go a long way in his plans for getting supplies.

"Not a problem, Harry. Now, unlike muggle contacts, you never need to take these out, unless you decide to fix your vision completely. To change the colour, you have to picture it in your head in a similar way to meditation. It requires a small amount of energy to hold the colour change, so when you go to sleep the charm will drop and you will need to reset the colour in the morning. They're 8 galleons, unless you want anything else?"

"Not at the moment, I'll come back later if I think of something," said Harry cheerfully, handing over the money. "On second thoughts, can you think of any place that will charm my hair another colour?"

"Ah, I can do that for you!" A few minutes later, a boy with pale blue eyes and dull blonde hair walked out of _Emerald Eyes_ with a huge smirk on his face. Harry strode towards Gringotts, completely unrecognisable. He walked up to a goblin, the bank almost completely empty due to the fact it was still only 5am.

"Good morning," said Harry nervously. "I need to visit my vault, but I don't have a key. Could you possibly help me?"

"Name?" sneered the goblin.

"Harry Potter," said Harry promptly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, please follow me." Harry followed the goblin through the halls of Gringotts until they reached an office with small plaque reading 'Goldtooth' above the door. They walked inside and the goblin that Harry took to be Goldtooth and Harry's guide conversed furiously in Gobbledegook until finally, Goldtooth took out a small bowl and a ceremonial dagger and presented them to Harry.

"Drop some of your blood into the bowl, and it will confirm your identity. It will also provide a list of any inheritances you have and supply the name of any outstanding wills," smirked Goldtooth. Harry was suddenly nervous. There was a look in the goblin's eye telling him that he was not about to enjoy this. He drew the dagger across his palm and held it over the bowl. After a few seconds, the cut he had made healed over, leaving only a faint scar that was gone not too long afterwards. Then he looked at the bowl and saw that his blood had mixed with the liquid in it and was churning horribly. After a few minutes, a piece of parchment had formed in the bottom of the bowl and all of the liquid was absorbed into it and forming words on its surface. Goldtooth picked it up, his sharp eyes scanning it and looked shocked- until her reached the bottom, where he began to look angry. He silently passed it to Harry, who looked down at it and almost dropped it in shock. Breathing deeply, he scanned it a second time.

_Harry James Potter-Black_

_Heir to:_

Potter (by name and blood)

Black (by choice)

Evans (by blood)

Pendragon (by blood)

Emrys (by blood)

Gryffindor (by blood)

Ravenclaw (by blood)

Hufflepuff (by blood)

Slytherin (by blood)

Gaunt (by conquest)

_Properties owned:_

Potter Manor- POTTER (Fidelius)

Godric's Hollow 75- POTTER (destroyed)

Sandy Cottage- EVANS

Privet Drive 4- EVANS

Merlin's Castle- EMRYS

Hogwarts Castle- GRYFFINDOR, HUFFLEPUFF, RAVENCLAW, SLYTHERIN

_Wills Outstanding;_

James Charlus Potter- 14 years, 10 months

Lily Potter _nee_ Evans- 14 years, 10 months

Sirius Orion Black- 1 month

Harry blinked at Sirius' name, but nevertheless took the offered parchments. A while later, Harry finished reading the last will- Sirius'- and looked up at Goldtooth.

"Sirius wanted me to become emancipated…" he trailed off.

"Ah, yes… that will give you all of the roles and responsibilities of an adult. You would claim your… 10… seats on the Wizengamot- which, by the way, might be a record number of seats, and you would be allowed to perform underage magic. If you break the law, you will be tried as an adult. You receive your Head of House rings, and one Albus Dumbledore will lose control of your vaults. Do you wish to proceed?"

"What… yes… Dumbledore has control of my vaults?" spluttered Harry. Goldtooth handed over a large stack of papers for Harry to sign while saying just loud enough for Harry to hear;

"I didn't think you authorised those rather large monthly withdrawals…" Harry frowned. Dumbledore had been stealing from him? Once the papers were signed, Harry swapped them for a pile of boxes. He took the first box and opened it- it contained a beautiful solid old ring with rubies around the edge at regular intervals and the Potter family crest imprinted in it, along with the family's motto. When he put the ring on, it heated up and shrunk to fit his finger before cooling so quickly it felt as though it had just been dumped in a bucket of ice after sitting in a fire for hours. One by one, the head of house rings made their way onto Harry's finger and he began to get used to the sensation. Soon, he was head of the houses of Potter, Black, Evans, Pendragon, Emrys, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Apparently, the Gaunt ring had gone missing along with its previous owner.

"Can I go down to my vault now, please? Just my trust vault," said Harry, deciding that he would come back when he had more time and fewer things to buy. One long cart ride later, Harry was standing in front of his vault handing over the key Goldtooth had given him. He went inside and realised that although it had a huge amount of gold in it, it was quite obviously lower than it had been the last time he had visited. He knew that Dumbledore ad lost control of his vault when he signed the emancipation papers, but to be on the safe side, he emptied the entire vault into his moneybag. It was a lot more than he had planned on taking but he didn't want to risk any more _disappearances. _Another cart ride later, Harry was outside and blinking in the sudden increase of light. He had been in the bank for just over 2 hours, so at just after 7am, the shops were beginning to open.

Harry didn't know where to go first, so he decided to work his way around the alley beginning with the shop right next to Gringotts- a luggage shop. Harry knew that the bottom of the range trunk he had bought with Hagrid over 5 years ago was getting a little too knocked around and was on the small side already without the things Harry was about to buy, so he entered the shop. It was exactly how he remembered it- full to the brim of trunks of every size, shape and colour. It looked like an explosion site with trunks piled haphazardly all over the place, with only a small clear area with a counter and a separate 'charms desk.' Harry finally decided on a beautiful mahogany trunk with gold clasps and edging. The thing Harry liked best about it was the fact it had four compartments, all magically enlarged. The first was a wardrobe, and was guaranteed to fit any item of clothing he tried to place in there, also keeping them 'fresh, and wrinkle-free!' The second compartment was a basic storage compartment- completely unremarkable, but quite obviously necessary. The third compartment was a library. It was guaranteed to hold over 2 000 books. Each shelf was numbered and when you entered the shelf number you wanted into the compartment, all the books stored on it would appear in it. It was brilliant! The fourth compartment was built for potions ingredients and the temperature was magically controlled to ensure maximum life for every ingredient placed init. Harry took the trunk to the counter and paid the 25 Galleons for it, before dragging it over to the charms desk. There, he paid 10 galleons for a feather-light charm, (which had to be placed on each compartment) a shrinking charm, password activation, a charm to key people into it, (so only certain people could even attempt to offer the password) notice-me-not charms and protection spells. He thanked the man, set the password to _Slytherin-_ (well, he WAS the Gryffindor Golden Boy- so no one would guess the password!) before putting his hand on the clasp and commanding it to "shrink" and put the matchbox-sized trunk in his back pocket before walking out the door.

The next store in line was Madam Malkin's. Harry walked in nervously, knowing that he would have to tell them his identity to get clothing that suited him. He looked around the shop, utterly lost in the masses of fabric before he heard giggling behind him. He whirled around, before he saw the shop assistant looking at him. He put his wand away sheepishly.

"Do you need any help?" she asked, still giggling but also eying the place where his wand had disappeared into nervously.

"Uh… yeah… I need some robes," said Harry, causing the shop assistant to burst out laughing.

"What type?" she asked once she regained control of her breathing. Harry couldn't see what was so amusing about the situation.

"Uh… type?" asked Harry, bewildered. The assistant giggled again, causing Harry to fully agree with his 14 year old selves' thoughts; _giggling should be made illegal._

"Well, we have dress robes, dinner robes, everyday robes, duelling robes, potions robes, school robes, spell-resistant robes, Wizengamot robes, casual party robes, family robes, formal robes, teaching robes… Then there are different materials, ranging from silk, to dragonhide and everything in between. There are different qualities and pre-made robes or you can go for tailored robes- those look better, but it depends on your budget…" she continued to talk, and stopped only when she saw Harry staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Uh… never mind. It's just… I didn't get any of that… but I'll try. Errr… money is really _not_ an issue, so I'll get top quality of everything, I guess… 2 each of the dress and dinner robes, 5 each of the school, spell-resistant and potions robes, 10 each of the everyday and casual party robes, 1 each of the Wizengamot, family and formal robes, and, err… maybe… 8 duelling robes? And what are teaching robes?"

"Sure! Tailored or pre-made? What colours? And teaching robes are really cool. They look like formal robes but a little more casual, but they have the characteristics of duelling and spell-proof robes in case a student's spell goes wrong and the teacher gets hit!" she said cheerfully.

"Can I add 10 teaching robes to the list? 'Cause I teach a… student organised Defence class and I've been hit in the back way too many times," Harry began grumbling. "Anyway, umm… tailored sounds good! Errr… for colours… uh, black school robes?" the assistant began giggling again, and Harry said;

"Can you just choose, please? I'm bad at this!"

"Sure, but are you in disguise? 'Cause the robes need to suit you."

"Yeah, I am disguised. How'd you guess? No, never mind, I don't want to know. Can I have one of the casual robes suit this disguise and the rest… well… I'm Harry Potter." The assistant gasped, before quickly recovering herself.

"Hi, Harry, I'm Ashley and sure, I can do that!"

"Thanks… and if you don't mention that you saw me here, you can 'accidentally' slip some extra robes in and I will forget that I didn't ask for them and pay for them," said Harry quickly. Ashley blushed and began taking his measurements and making the robes. Harry was surprised at how quickly robes could be made with magic- it helped that all the robes could be made at once. While she was making the, Harry continued his browsing of the shop and picked up several pairs of dragonhide gloves and boots. Half an hour later, Harry left Madam Malkin's with 54 new robes in his trunk and wearing the robe he had made for his disguise. (Ashley had 'accidentally' dropped another 4 in with Harry's permission) The gloves and boots he had seen were also in his trunk.

The next store was a muggle clothing store, and Harry went through a similar process- although they didn't do tailor-made clothing which was fortunate for Harry. Harry left the store with a complete new wardrobe- 10 pairs of shorts, t shirts, long sleeved shirts, jeans, track pants and jackets, 20 pairs of socks and underwear, 5 vests, singlets and skivvies, several scarves, hats and gloves, 3 pairs of runners, thongs, slippers and boots and an interesting pair of shoes the owner called Ugg Boots. Thankfully the assistant, as a muggleborn, didn't make much of a fuss over his identity. As Harry was leaving, he mentally thanked the luggage store- he was sure a normal wardrobe would explode if he tried to put the amount of clothing he had bought so far into it.

Flourish and Blotts was next in line, and Harry walked in excitedly. For some reason, he wanted to learn everything he could, and not because he had a mentally deranged mass murderer after him, but because he _could. _It was later that he learned Dumbledore had long ago magically repressed his learning abilities and when he was in Gringotts, the goblins had noticed several charms on him and began to take them off. The store was split into several sections; Fiction, Non Fiction, Transfiguration, Potions, Defence against the Dark Arts, Mind Magics, Herbology, History, Charms, Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures, Household Magic, Pureblood Customs and Traditions, law, Obscure Magics, Astronomy, Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Curse Breaking, Warding and the list went on. Although the charms Dumbledore had placed on him hadn't been fully lifted, it was enough to make him almost skip in excitement when he saw all of the knowledge that was stored in the one shop. Harry skipped over the fiction section, and headed to the closest section after that: Transfiguration. There, he pored over all of the titles, before finally deciding on several advanced books, including _NEWT Transfiguration, Advanced and Permanent Conjurations, Finding Your Inner Animal, Animagus for Everyone, Transforming yourself and others, Human transfigurations; the cheats, shortcuts and dangers, Mastering transfiguration, Transfiguring your way out of trouble, Transfiguration in Duelling _and a few others. Potions was next, and he found several books, including; _Advanced Potion-Making, Brewing for Dummies, Quick Potions That Will Save Your Life, Basic Healing Potions, Poisons and Antidotes for the Hunted Wizard, _(Harry chuckled at that one- it really did describe him!) _How to Prove You Really Can Brew, Advanced Potions Simplified, Understanding What You're Using and Why _and _Why Your Potion Does What It Says It Does. _In Defence, He picked up the largest stack of books out of all of the sections. _Defence for the Average Wizard, Defending Yourself, Defence Against the Dark Arts Revisited, Duelling; Etiquette, Rules and Regulations, Advanced Defence, NEWT DADA, Mastering Defence, Defensive Strategies, 101 shield spells and their counters, Surviving in the Real World, Common Spells to Save Your Life, Basic Defensive Spells You Never Learnt, Winning Outnumbered, Great Duels and the Spells Used, Defeating the Average Dark Lord _and _Muggle Duelling- The Only Defence Against The Unforgivables, and How They Do It _were among the books he found. The Herbology and History sections were passed over, with Harry picking up one or two books in each. The Mind Magics section was the smallest, but there, he picked up; _Occlumency; The Basics, Defending Your Mind Against Master Legilimens, Conversing Silently- Telepathy For Beginners!, Legilimency for Beginners, Advanced Legilimency, Advanced Occlumency, Advanced Telepathy, Mastering Mind Arts, Why Only Some People Know The Mind Arts_ and _How To Tell If Someone's A Legilimens Without Looking Them In The Eye- The Things Every Wizard Should Know. _Harry wondered why Mind Arts were so rare when there was so much information on them in Flourish and Blotts when he saw a sign above the section saying that the Mind Arts section was warded so that only people with enough power and the ability to learn the arts could access it- 1 in 10000. Harry whistled. Now that he thought of it, Hermione had never seen the section, or she would have been all over it. Muggle studies was ignored, and in Care of Magical Creatures he only took one book; _Every Known Magical Creature and What to Do If You Meet Them- Self-Updating. _In the Charms section, he picked up several books on advanced Charms and Charming in battle. Household magic, Pureblood customs and traditions and Law were all severely depleted once Harry had looked through them. Obscure Magics was the section that Harry had looked forward to the most, and it had a similar warding system to the Mind Magics section, it scanned your power levels and intentions. Even Dumbledore had failed to enter it, but to Harry's delight, he managed it. Here, he picked up a huge pile of books, including;_ Wandless Magic- Basic, Wandless Magic- Intermediate, Wandless Magic- Advanced, Elemental Magic and Why It Is Classified 'Extinct', Controlling the Elements, Broomstick Crafting, _(Harry had no idea why he picked that one up, but left it in the basket anyway) _Wandless Magic Explained, Silent Casting and It's Benefits, Why People Use Staffs and How To Craft One For Yourself, Wandless Magic In Battle, Using The Elements In A Duel, Highly Amusing Ways To Defeat Your Opponent, Learning Silent Casting to Surprise Your Enemies, Pranking A Dark Lord, Finding The Power You Never Knew You Had, Powers You Never Knew You Had And What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up, Discovering Blocks On Your Magic, Ancient Magic and How To Use It, Sentient Castles- They're Fun To Talk To! _(Harry was sure Hogwarts was sentient and was going to enjoy working with the castle to prank someone… like Dumbledore) and_ The Complete Encyclopaedia of Obscure Magics and How To Use Them. _The astronomy and divination sections were both completely ignored, but the Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Curse breaking and Warding sections were all missing quite a few books after Harry went through them. After over an hour in the admittedly large bookshop, Harry took his basket of over 500 books to the counter and paid for them. The shop owner had taken one look at the number of books in the basket and told Harry that he could just pay 200 Galleons as he didn't have the patience or the time to try and work out the correct price. Harry grinned, knowing he was getting a huge discount and handed over the money before dumping the books into the library section of his trunk, knowing that they would automatically sort themselves by subject as he had set it to do when he bought it and left the shop.

The next store was interesting for Harry- he managed to pick up several swords and daggers of different lengths and thicknesses, all magically tied to him. He found duelling dummies which could be programmed to duel at different skill levels and bought 6 of them, knowing that he would very rarely enter a fair, one-one-one fight. He found a wand holster- invisible to everyone apart from himself and charmed to keep hold of the want even if hit with an advanced summoning charm, as well as several holsters for his new weapons, with similar charms to the wand holster.

The apothecary's smell prevented him from being in there too long, but he managed to get several spare cauldrons and kits with 6th and 7th year ingredients as well as several rarer, more expensive ingredients that Harry was sure could not be found in the student's supply cupboard- such as basilisk venom, phoenix tears, boomslang skin, Gillyweed and lacewing flies. He bought a supply of bezoars, knowing he was in huge danger of being poisoned. Several top-of-the-range potions knives found their way into his trunk along with new scales and other potions equipment.

Quality Quidditch Supplies was almost passed over- until he spotted another book on broom crafting and picked it up, now knowing that he was going to try and craft his own broom. Realising that he never got his Firebolt back from Umbridge, he also picked up a new broom which had just come out the day before and he had managed to not notice in his haste to pick up the book. _That's a first… I went for a book without even noticing a new, top of the line broom that had only been released the day before! Hermione would be so proud… Ron would be disgusted!_ It was called the Firebolt II, and promised to be lighter, quicker and have sharper steering than the model before. Harry was sceptical about the claims, but bought it anyway.

Next in line was the Diagon Alley outlet of Scrivenshafts- Hermione's second favourite store. Harry entered, knowing this was going to be a big purchase. He went first to the parchment, where he bought 1000 rolls of parchment- he had done a mental calculation- Every year at Hogwarts, he used 300 rolls of parchment, but Hermione went through 100 rolls more than him. That meant that he would probably use 350 rolls this year if they did a similar amount of writing. However, they had been promised that they would be using a LOT more parchment in 6th year, so he bumped his amount up to 450 rolls, as he wasn't sure if he would be dropping any subjects yet- it all depended on his OWL results, although he felt sure he would not make it into Advanced Potions. Then there was the fact that he was going to study many more subjects independently this year, such as Arithmancy and ancient runes, as well as the work he was doing at Privet Drive. He estimated that the extra studying would use quite a few more rolls of parchment and rounded it up to 500 rolls a year. However, there was a discount if you bought over 800 rolls, so Harry bought enough parchment to last him until the end of his schooling at Hogwarts. Once that was decided, he went over to the quills and bought lots- eagle, owl, standard, formal quills were all on offer- there was also an extremely expensive phoenix feather quill. Harry decided that the eagle quills were handsome but not overly expensive. He found self-inking, dictation, spell-checking and spill-resistant quills in the eagle feather range and bough t several of each, deciding that if he could use a dictation quill in Binn's class he wouldn't have to use Hermione's notes- he was going to give her a run for her money in the grades department this year! No more holding back like he had done his whole schooling life. He bought enough ink to last him for years- black, blue, red, green and colour-changing inks all made their way into his purchases. Finally he made his way up to the counter before he realised that they sold book bags- he had always been slightly envious of Hermione's magical one, but most students didn't own them. He looked through them, and finally found one that he liked- a handsome bottle green bag- spill, tear and curse resistant, as well as magically enlarged with several different sections for books, parchment, ink, quills, a general section for placing anything he wanted into it and even a section for his wand! It had been charmed feather light and had a system similar to his trunk- only people keyed into the bag could open it. Harry loved it, and added it to his already extensive purchase.

The next store was a furniture store, and Harry almost passed it over before he decided it would be fun to look around in it, and he could improve his room now that he could use magic. He then decided to replace all of the furniture in his room- he could always use magic to make the room bogger if his things didn't fit. Almost immediately after entering the shop, Harry's eyes were drawn to a small oak cabinet. Harry went over to it, and stared at it in shock- it was a self-refilling pantry! Once you put a certain food into it, every time you took it out the cabinet would automatically replace it. Harry knew he needed it. He could completely avoid the Dursleys for the whole holidays if he had it! He paid the 500 galleons for it and placed it in his trunk before continuing around the shop and getting other bits of furniture for his room.

To Harry's amusement, the wizarding supermarket was next in line, and he went in, intent on filling the cabinet he had bought. He found huge amounts of pre-made meals ('All it takes is one simple heating charm!') and bought one of each. He bought several different types of fruit and a container of pumpkin juice.

Harry was beginning to get tired, so he made his way to the Leaky Cauldron, intent upon getting a rest, lunch and a butterbeer- _Hmmm… maybe I can place a butterbeer in the cabinet before taking it out- then I can have the stuff at the Dursleys and Hogwarts! Brilliant! _He ate his meal quietly, remembering to add butterbeer to his cabinet. Just as Harry was leaving, he passed a table of mismatched people having an intense conversation. Interested, he slid into the table behind them and pulled a glass of butterbeer out of his cabinet. He was glad he decided to eavesdrop, as almost immediately, he heard;

"Kingsley, Alastor, the two of you are responsible for training Weasley and Granger. I want them auror level in Defence before school resumes, they are responsible for the protection of Potter, and they disgraced me in their OWLs." Harry seethed. He could protect himself! Apparently Moody agreed with him, as he asked the question Harry wanted answered.

"Albus, why don't we train Harry himself? He is a natural at Defence; the boy could get a mastery in the subject over the summer if he wanted to!"

"Because, Alastor, Potter is dangerous. He could go Dark if he has too much power. That's why I put all those blocks on his mind and magic. He cannot be trained!" Harry felt as though he would blow up the pub if he stayed much longer. Blocks on his _magic?_ He knew about the blocks on his mind, but his magic was bad. They could have killed him! He was putting the butterbeer away when he heard Snape, of all people, saying;

"Albus, that's ridiculous. The boy will never go Dark; he is too much like his father. Arrogant, stupid Gryffindor fool, no thanks to your blocks, by the way, but he is light to the core."

"We will train his so called _friends, _Albus, and I don't like what you're making them do. Really? Spies? But we will train them to the best of our abilities and you'd best hope that leaving Potter untrained leaves your foolish mind very soon, or I will take him out of school and give the boy an apprenticeship myself… or talk to your friend Flamel," growled Moody. Harry pondered over the new information as he rushed back to Flourish and Blotts. He had ignored the auror level books in the defence section, believing that he would come back to them in a year or two when he could handle the magic. Now, however… as he picked up every book he could find on auror level spells and curses as well as the handbooks for every year of auror training, he thought over the discussion he had heard. _Ron and Hermione were being trained? Dumbledore thought he would go Dark? No… that has to be a cover for something else. Wait… Ron and Hermione are spies? On me, I bet… now that I think about it, they never did anything above what was expected of 'friends' around me. Snape stood up for me… hmmm… and Moody also. BLOCKS ON MY MAGIC! How do I get rid of them? Not going to the goblins unless I have to. Their price would be very steep… time for a change of plans. Where did I put those Gringotts keys?_

Once Harry had paid for his new books, (all 50 of them) he almost ran back to Gringotts, stopping only to pick up a few owl treats. He wouldn't be doing any more shopping today. Harry made his way to the nearest free goblin, who just so happened to be Griphook and was taken down to his other vaults. First was the Potter family vault. Completely ignoring the piles of gold, Harry picked up every book he did not already own and placed it in his trunk. His father had been an auror, so he also had restricted books that were not sold to the public- auror handbooks and spells that were not taught to the general public. The same thing happened in the Evans, Gaunt, Pendragon, Hufflepuff and Slytherin vaults, although he ignored the Dark books. In the Gryffindor vault, he added the expensive weaponry and Dark Detectors into his trunk along with the books. (For some reason, the Gryffindor vault had the smallest collection of books- but he didn't already own any of them) The Ravenclaw vault offered him a pendant that would help him absorb everything that he read along with helping him read at twice the pace. He picked it up and put it on before collecting all of the books. The last vault was the Emrys vault- Merlin's. He approached it nervously. There was barely anything in there! He picked up the books and the weaponry. The books were impressive; most of them unpublished and the author had been Merlin himself. When he returned to the surface, he made his way to the portkey store and bought one that would take him to St. Mungos. Ten minutes later, Harry was standing in the foyer. Deciding that blocks were 'spell damage,' he made his way up to the fourth floor as quickly as he could without running. He soon found a healer and explained to her that he had recently discovered blocks on his powers.

"Not a problem, we'll have them off you in less than an hour!" she said cheerfully and started telling him that blocks used to be popular and were placed on overly powerful children to contain their accidental magic before being removed on their 11th birthday, but people stopped doing it after they realised that blocks, although increasing power in the long run, were incredibly dangerous as the children need accidental magic to get themselves out of dangerous situations. It was also illegal to leave blocks on after a child's 11th birthday. The healer soon lost her cheerful demeanour after she realised the extent of the blocks.

"Goodness, it's a miracle you can cast at all!" she exclaimed. "Who placed them?"

"Dumbledore," Harry ground out. She looked shocked, but didn't ask any questions and began to work on removing them. Once all the blocks were gone, she handed him a sheet of parchment.

"I would tell you about all the blocks that were placed, but it would take too long," she said seriously. "When you get home, prick your finger and place it on the parchment. It will give you a list of all of your rarer powers and abilities, most of which were completely blocked." She then tried to give him a copy of _Powers You Never Knew You Had And What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up, _but Harry told her that he had bought his own copy just this morning. Harry thanked her for removing all the blocks before using his new portkey to return to Diagon Alley. Thankfully, the Order had left, and he was able to sneak back into muggle London and called the Knight Bus.

It was 6 in the evening by the time Harry got back to Privet Drive. He decided to fix his room the next day, and set to work on discovering the abilities that had been blocked. He pricked his finger and placed it on the parchment. Soon, it read;

_Harry James Potter-Black_

_Discovery of unblocked magic_

_Powers and Abilities;_

Metamorphmagus (unlocked; 15yrs)

Multi-animagus (unlocked; 15yrs)

Beast speaker (unlocked; 15yrs)

Elemental magic (unlocked; 15yrs)

Parseltounge (never blocked)

Parsel magic (never blocked)

Eidetic memory (unlocked; 15yrs)

Advanced speed (unlocked; 15yrs)

Advanced hearing (unlocked; 15yrs)

Shadow walking (unlocked; 15yrs)

Natural Mind Magics affinity (unlocked; 15yrs)

"WOW," breathed Harry. For a test, he took off the pendant he had found in Ravenclaw's vault and read the first 3 chapters of one of his books. He closed it and was shocked when he could recall it perfectly, word for word. Her then realised it had only taken him 5 minutes, and now that his mind was fully unlocked, he was able to understand it as well.

"It really works… the paper's not lying… I can read and remember… and UNDERSTAND! Even better than Hermione… she doesn't have eidetic memory, she just studies too much… this is brilliant! I might actually finish the books I bought! And I can use magic!" Harry continued to talk to himself in a similar fashion for over 10 minutes until a loud bang from Dudley's bedroom brought him back to his senses. He looked at the parchment once more and decided that occlumency was his priority and with _natural mind magics affinity _on the list, he should be able to do it quite quickly. He pulled out all of his Occlumency books and began to read.

By 8pm, Harry had finished reading about the art and was ready to put his defences in place. He slipped into a mediative trance like the book instructed him to, and found his mind. He was disgusted by the mess. Slowly, Harry organised his mind. He began by building walls around his mind and soon, he had a castle built. He furnished all of the rooms and it was quickly becoming his dream space. He even had an indoor Quidditch pitch! Then he made his way to the library, where all of his thoughts, emotions and memories would be stored. It took him a long time, but finally his memories were sorted by his age and the people involved, and his thoughts and emotions were organised into categories depending on the people involved and whether it was positive or negative. He put some basic shields around his mind and then withdrew. He knew that once he learnt some stronger wards he could place them around his library and castle, but for now he was happy with the fact that it was organised and he had basic shields in place. It was enough that he managed to sleep without any nightmares about Voldemort. Or Cedric. Or Sirius.


	2. OWLs and Birthdays

_**OWLs and Birthdays**_

A week had passed, and Harry was passed NEWT level for all of his school subjects… and the subjects that he hadn't taken, like Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. He was at Auror level for Defence- consistently beating 2 duelling dummies set at auror level, although 3 still stumped him. He was also becoming proficient with blades and was doing well in his fitness course and gymnastic class.

His room was unrecognisable! The 'room' was now closer to the size of a house. There was a duelling platform with basic wards around it to stop stray spells from hitting anything else and his 6 duelling dummies were set up neatly at one end of the platform. He had a racking system behind the platform, housing all of his weapons. The ceiling was charmed in the same way as the Great Hall at Hogwarts, letting sunlight into the room during the day. There was a large jogging track and a lap pool. On the other side of the room, he had his food cabinet, desk and his new four poster bed. His trunk was pushed up against the wall, next to the door which had muggle-repelling and notice-me-not wards on it. His old trunk had been emptied, shrunk and placed in the second compartment of his new trunk.

At the Burrow, Kingsley, Tonks and Moody were yelling at Ron and Hermione who were struggling to raise a basic shield.

"We're BORED! If we were doing proper magic, we'd be able to do it! We're s'possed to be doing auror level stuff! You're teaching us the stuff Potter taught his little class of wannabes," complained Ron.

"Exactly! Potter taught us shields last year. We can already do them. I want to learn something better, which he doesn't already know!" agreed Hermione. Before the three aurors could decide whether they wanted to explode the room or ask about Harry's teaching abilities, Dumbledore walked into the room with a calm expression on his face.

"Ron, Hermione, I have our OWL results. I also have Potters and I am going to give them to Alastor to read them out to you so that you can compare results with him," said Dumbledore. Hermione began shaking out of nerves and Ron looked slightly queasy.

"Albus, these are Potter's to share. I don't like this."

"Alastor, it's fine, he'd share them anyway," said Dumbledore cheerfully. Moody relented; he knew he couldn't beat Dumbledore in a verbal battle. Just then, Hermione read her results out loud;

"Arithmancy: E, Ancient Runes: A, Astronomy: A, Care of Magical Creatures: E, Transfiguration: O, Potions: A, Charms: E, Defence Against the Dark Arts: P, Herbology: A, History: E" Hermione sighed.

"I should have done better than that! At least I will beat Potter," she grumbled. Moody, who had already looked at Harry's results, smirked when he heard Hermione's grumbling.

"I got; Astronomy: P, Care of Magical Creatures: A, Divination: P, Transfiguration: A, Potions: P, Charms: A, Defence Against the Dark Arts: D, Herbology: P, History: P. 3 OWLs? Mum's gonna be bloody mad! What'd Potter get?" groaned Ron. Moody smirked.

"Harry James Potter," read Moody. "Astronomy: E, Care of Magical Creatures: O, Divination: A, Transfiguration: O, Potions: O, Charms: O, Defence Against the Dark Arts: O, Herbology: E, History: A. Congratulations, Mr. Potter, you have achieved 13 OWLs and a record score in Defence Against the Dark Arts." Ron and Hermione stared in shock. Then they began yelling, demanding him to read them properly. Moody had had enough. He pocketed Harry's results and strode out the door and passed the wards, before apparating straight to Privet Drive. He strode up to number 4 and knocked on the door. No one answered.

"Alohomora," he growled, and the door swung open. Moody, having visited Privet Drive once before, crept up the stairs to Harry's room to see if he was in there. What he saw amazed him. Harry had decided it was time for 3 dummies at auror level and was so focused on his duel he didn't notice his door creak open. He took down the first dummy.

"One down, two to go," he growled. After 2 minutes, the second dummy was down and Harry re holstered his wand and unsheathed his sword in one fluid movement. He began dodging the spells the final dummy was firing at him, slowly edging his way towards it. After a few minutes of non-stop dodging, he finally felled the last dummy. Breathing heavily, Harry sheathed his sword and placed it back in his belt before he heard a noise behind him. Harry whirled, pulling out his wand.

"Moody?" he said under his breath, before raising his voice. "Show yourself!"

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE, Good, boy. I am Alastor Moody, member of the Order of the Phoenix and last year I gave you a photograph of the original Order," he growled.

"Hi, Mad-Eye, What are you doing here?"

"Bringing you your OWL results, getting pretty boring at Headquarters," said Moody.

"That's your code for; I'm not enjoying training Ron and Hermione and am trying to escape," said Harry slyly. Moody opened his mouth, looking incredibly shocked, but Harry said;

"Really? You're shocked after having a conversation like _that _in the _Leaky Cauldron_, of all places? I was there that day and heard your conversation. Found it interesting that Snape would stand up for me!"

"What… _How? _I was on guard duty that morning! And why were you there, anyway?" Moody looked suitably impressed.

"Not telling _how, _what if I need to escape again? Anyway, I went to Diagon Alley to get some supplies to help me train, 'cause I need to know how to defend myself with a mad mass murderer trying to kill me," grumbled Harry, "I was glad I heard your conversation, I got a few more books than I would have if I had not heard it, and I got those blocks removed. I know you're going to ask- I became emancipated that morning so the underage magic law doesn't apply!" They talked for a while longer, Moody complemented the duelling he had seen Harry doing earlier and Harry discovered that Tonks, Kingsley and Lupin were all trustworthy. After a while, Harry finally gathered up the courage to check his OWL results and was impressed by them. After inquiring about Ron and Hermione's results, he burst out laughing. Then the talk turned to Ron and Hermione's training.

"I did teach shields last year, but Ron and Hermione's were always so weak I could shatter them with a weak stunner," said Harry. "I'm not surprised they can't do them now. Neville would be better to train, but he's too loyal to spy on me. He was actually one of the first to manage the Patronus!"

"You taught them the _patronus?"_

"Yep! Actually, now that I think about it, Ron and Hermione were the only ones that failed to get at least a dense mist." They spent the next hour discussing Harry's training before Mad-Eye left, promising to tell Dumbledore that Harry was moody, depressed, not eating properly and wishing he could see his friends again. He would then tell Lupin the truth.

Harry spent the next few days training harder than ever on his new schedule, as the old one was inefficient. The parchment beside his bed now read;

4.00- run and swim

7.00-breakfast

7.15- potions (mon) transfiguration (tue) charms (wed) occ/leg (thur) obscure magics (fri) animagi (sat) DADA (sun)

12.00- lunch

12.30- GYM- gymnastics (mon) tai kwon do (tue) karate (wed)kung fu (thur) dance (fri) acrobatics (sat) general martial arts (sun)

3.00- run and swim

5.00-duelling

7.00-dinner

7.30- metamorphmagi

8.30- other subjects, crafting

Harry found this schedule to be highly efficient. His duelling had improved dramatically thanks to his new classes at the gym along with the running and swimming. Harry was a quick learner at the gym and although he was yet to attempt the transformation, he had discovered his animagus forms to be a black panther, lion, snow leopard, phoenix and griffin. Harry was surprised at the phoenix and griffin- as magical creatures; they were extremely rare animagus forms.

After two weeks, Harry was really getting into his new schedule. That night, the night before his 16th birthday, Harry had a weird dream. A man had come to him and told him to pack his trunk when he woke.

"You're good," the man had said, "but not good _enough_! I can help you train to defeat Voldemort. When you wake, pack your trunk. Tomorrow night, I will come and collect you, and you will train with me for a year. When you come back, you will be good enough to beat Dumbledore in a duel with a blindfold on. I will train you, little one, until the training you have done seems like child's play and the books you have read seem like bedtime stories. Write a letter to the people in the Order you trust. Create a communication paper for Remus Lupin, if you like. However, you must ensure that Dumbledore knows nothing of this. Make sure your trunk is in your pocket tomorrow night, and I will collect you, young heir…" and with that, the man faded away. Harry didn't know why, but he felt inclined to trust the man. When he got back from the gym, instead of going for a run, he packed his trunk. It was 4pm by the time he remembered his birthday. He went to the window and saw a small group of owls asleep on the windowsill. He opened the window and they all woke and flew inside and landed on the bed. He went to the first owl and detached the package and accompanying letter. It was from the Burrow.

_Hey Mate,_

_Happy Birthday!_

_Bored at HQ, there's nothing to do! Can't join the Order, so no one ever talks to us and we never see anyone. Have you heard from Hermione? Her present's in the package._

_Hope we see you soon!_

_Ron_

"HA! Bored… can't join the Order… never seen anyone… liar. Dumbledore told him to write that… why? No… I don't need that answered," Harry grumbled. He opened the package and felt the waves of magic coming off it. The first present was a Chudley Cannons poster and chocolate frogs.

_Hey Mate, Don't feel bad about Sirius, and Happy Birthday!_

The next present was from Ginny, and was a box of Chocolate Cauldrons. Harry froze. He remembered Moody telling him that the Weasleys were trying to slip him a love potion. He threw detection spells at their gifts, and sure enough, both the frogs and the cauldrons were spiked with Ammortentia. He remembered a passage from _Advanced Potion-Making. "…Ammortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world, and is rumoured to smell differently to each person, depending on what they are attracted to… The use of Ammortentia on a person is highly illegal… only taught to some people so they can recognise it…" _and then he remembered one night in the Leaky Cauldron one night before third year… _Ginny, Hermione and Molly were sitting together discussing a love potion Molly had once brewed. All three of them were rather giggly, and Hermione kept shooting Arthur strange looks… _Harry immediately _incendio'ed_ the frogs and cauldrons and feeling rather like Moody, threw a detection spell at the Cannons poster. Apparently his suspicions were not unfounded- a compulsion charm had been placed on it, and it too-was hit with an_ incendio._ Sighing, Harry turned back to the package.

_Harry,_

_Happy Birthday! I have spoken to Mad-Eye. Good luck with your project! It sounds as though you are doing really well. My gift to you is this; You know the password._

_Remus_

Interested, Harry got out his wand and tapped the parchment.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" he intoned.

_Harry,_

_Fred and George have invented the magical equivalent to 'surveillance cameras.' I have tied one each to Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Dumbledore and myself, as well as placed one in HQ meeting room. Tap the parchment with your wand and announce the place or person that you want to watch. You can have four 'screens' open at once, but you can only have one open if you want to listen to the conversations going on. Order meetings are at 7pm on Monday and Thursday nights. Have fun,_

_Mooney_

Harry stared at the parchment in shock. Then smiled.

"Thanks, Remus!" he said under his breath, before tapping the parchment and saying "Dumbledore, Lupin, Hermione!" He noticed that Ron and Hermione were in the training room, so he cancelled Dumbledore and Remus' screens and watched in amusement as Ron and Hermione continued to struggle with a basic _protego. _After watching Ron collapse under a full-body bind for the 5th time in a row, he turned back to his gifts.

Moody had sent him a 'senior auror handbook'-his dad had never reached that stage so he didn't yet have it. Fred and George had sent him a large crate of their latest inventions and a note to be careful around their family.

At 5 o'clock, Harry's trunk was packed and his room was back to normal- he knew that undoing all the charms would keep Dumbledore from being suspicious at the same time as alerting Moody that he had planned the escape. He shrank his trunk, leaving the old one lying open on the ground and the new one in his pocket, before staging some letters.

_Dear Ron and Hermione, _

_Thanks for your gifts, they are wonderful-_

(Hermione had sent him a 'self-help' book layered in compulsion charms)

_Any chance I can come to HQ- no, don't answer that. I'm guessing you're there, Hermy. Missing Sirius heaps, it's my fault he died. I'm deeply sorry that I dragged you all off to the Ministry that night. See you both on the train, and thanks for being such good friends._

_Harry_

Harry smirked. He knew he was pushing his luck, but he couldn't help it. Then he penned his final letter;

_Lupin,_

_Thanks for the present, it was brilliant! Yes, my project is going well, although I am still struggling with the more marauder-style part of it. I know the forms, I am just too nervous to go through with it! The password to close your gift is in use here, if you get my meaning. Also, the next stage of my project is this parchment. You know the password! _

_Harry_

After adding the necessary charms, Harry re-wrote the note;

_Remus,_

_Hey! This is a communication parchment that only you can read. I have the other one so we can communicate without Dumbledore's interference! I am leaving Privet Drive for a year to continue my training, so yes, these letters are staged. I was never planning on sending them. Hopefully you will be in the team to search the house once they discover I am missing. I left a clue for Mad-Eye as well- ask him about the charms on my room! Anyway, no one will be able to find me once I'm gone- even owls will fail to reach me! The only way to communicate is this parchment. Please don't tell anyone what I'm doing, or why. (Mad-Eye, Kingsley and Tonks can know) Thanks. Onto other news, I'm a multi-animagus! One of my forms is a snow leopard, and that's all I'm saying! How are you? Oh, and thank Mad-Eye for the book, its great! To key him into the parchment, tap it and say his name. The same will work for Kingsley and Tonks, but no one else. I'm sorry I have to leave, but I will never get the skills I need with Dumbledore around. _

_See you in a year!_

_**Firepaw**__ (Harry)_

Harry then sealed both of the letters so that it looked like he was going to send them. He then put his quill and ink into his bookbag, shrunk it and placed it in his other pocket. He gave his room one last check and decided that there was nothing left in it that was worth keeping (he had already sent Hedwig to go and live with Lupin for the year as he couldn't put an owl in his pocket) and left the room. He went downstairs and began running around Privet Drive, hoping the familiar movement would calm him down. He cancelled his classes at the gym and wondered vaguely who the man was, and how he was being picked up. At 8, he crept back into Privet Drive and up into his bedroom. As soon as he made it to the bed, he collapsed into an enchanted sleep.

"Hello, young heir," said the man, "you have been wondering who I am, I'm sure! My name is Merlin. You have a difficult destiny ahead of you, and I have decided that I, along with some of your other ancestors will train you to fulfil this destiny. You will meet the others when we arrive."

"How- how are we getting… wherever we are going?" said Harry faintly. _I get to be trained by Merlin!_

"Like this," said Merlin mysteriously. There was a flash of blinding white light and a suspicious rumbling sound before Harry felt himself being dragged out of the room with a sensation similar to both apparition and portkeying- as though Merlin couldn't decide which one to use, so he had done both. Needless to say, it was uncomfortable. As quickly as it had come, the feeling left, and Harry was standing in a room with 5 other people. Merlin was standing next to him, and there were 2 men and 2 women on the other side of the room looking at them. All 5 of them had power rolling off them in amounts far greater than Dumbledore had ever shown. Harry knew it was useless drawing his wand. Even if they were a threat, there was nothing he could do to them. It made him distinctly uncomfortable.

"Um… hi! I'm Harry Potter… who- who're you?" he said nervously. Merlin chuckled.

"Sorry, Harry… introductions… This is Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin."

"I'm always introduced last," grumbled Slytherin. Harry gaped at him.

"Hi Harry!" said Gryffindor cheerfully.

"Shut up, Godric, I'm doing the introductions," said Merlin playfully. Harry stared.

"Harry," continued Merlin, "You are currently standing in Merlin's Castle. Time passes differently here, so although you will be gone for a year, you will be training here with us for 20 years. While you're here, you will study every subject taught at Hogwarts…" Godric cheered, and Merlin rolled his eyes. "…and some that aren't. By the time we are finished with you, hopefully you will be capable of defeating me in a duel. Don't look like that; you will be capable of it if you train hard enough! Just to annoy Dumbledore, you will be capable of apparating through the Hogwarts wards and be more knowledgeable than the Professors… in their own subjects. Think of it! The 17 year old, smarter that his professors… Anyway, your training will be extremely tough, no denying it. Godric will train you in all types on muggle and magical duelling, martial arts and transfiguration. Helga will take you for healing, elf and goblin magic, Arithmancy and charms. Rowena has you for ancient runes, divination, history, astronomy, and disguise, including metamorph. Salazar has Defence Against the Dark Arts, potions, Care of Magical Creatures, occlumency and Legilimency, elemental magic and parsel magic. I get to teach you warding, curse breaking, spell and weapon crafting, stealth and tracking and advanced apparition, and I get to watch the rest of your training! You get to start tomorrow, how exciting! I put your timetable in your room, but go get some sleep now, you need it." Merlin left the room along with Godric, Rowena and Salazar, leaving Helga to show Harry to his room. An hour later, after Harry had unpacked his things and explored his very basic room, he lay on the bed and thought over his very full timetable.

_**Monday**_

4.00- physical activities _Godric and Merlin_

7.00- warding _Merlin_

10.00- curse breaking _Merlin_

1.00- spell/weapon crafting _Merlin_

4.00- advanced apparition _Merlin_

7.00- stealth and tracking _Merlin_

10.00- study/personal projects

_**Tuesday**_

4.00- physical activities _Godric and Helga_

7.00- Arithmancy _Helga_

10.00- charms _Helga_

1.00- elvin magic _Helga_

4.00- goblin magic _Helga_

7.00- healing _Helga_

10.00- study/personal projects

_**Wednesday**_

4.00- physical activities _Godric and Rowena_

7.00- ancient runes _Rowena_

10.00- divination _Rowena_

1.00- history _Rowena_

4.00- disguise _Rowena_

7.00- astronomy _Rowena_

10.00 study/ personal projects

_**Thursday**_

4.00- physical activities _Godric and Merlin_

7.00- muggle studies _Godric_

10.00- transfiguration _Godric_

1.00- duelling _Godric_

4.00- martial arts _Godric_

7.00- languages _Merlin and Rowena_

10.00- study/ personal projects

_**Friday**_

4.00- physical activities _Godric and Salazar_

7.00- Defence Against the Dark Arts _Salazar_

10.00- potions _Salazar_

1.00- Care of Magical Creatures _Salazar_

4.00- Occlumency and Legilimency _Salazar_

7.00- Elemental and Parsel magic _Salazar_

10.00- study/ personal projects

_**Saturday**_

4.00- physical activities _Godric and Merlin_

7.00- wandless/wordless casting _Merlin_

10.00- misc. _Helga_

1.00- misc. _Rowena_

4.00- misc. _Godric_

7.00- misc. _Salazar_

10.00- study/ personal projects

_**Sunday**_

4.00- physical activities _Merlin and Salazar_

7.00- practical applications and challenges _Merlin, Godric, Helga, Rowena and Salazar_

10.00- study/ personal projects

Harry groaned. They had not been exaggerating when they had told him the training was going to be tough… he rolled over and was asleep almost instantly, conveniently forgetting to set the alarm for 4 the next day. He was about to learn that Merlin didn't like it when his students slept in.

Meanwhile, the Burrow was in uproar. The wards around Privet Drive had fallen, and Mundungus had reported hearing an explosion coming from Harry's room.

"QUIET!" yelled Dumbledore, "we will just have to send a group to check on him. While they go to his room, I will redo the wards. Alastor, you can come. Alright, Remus, you may join us if you must. Shacklebolt, you as well and…"

"I'd like to join you as well, if that's alright, Albus?"

"Alright then, Tonks, you're coming as well. For the rest of you, this meeting is concluded." Dumbledore then strode out the door, followed by Remus, Moody, Kingsley and Tonks, who was snickering because Dumbledore had unknowingly sent the four people who were loyal to Harry rather than him to go and check up on him. The 5 of them apparated to Privet Drive as soon as they got past the Burrow's wards, and nothing looked out of place. Nevertheless, Moody stunned Mrs. Dursley when she came to answer the door, and four of them strode upstairs while Dumbledore remained outside to work on the wards.

"Harry?" Remus opened the door, and Harry was nowhere to be seen.

"He's planned something," growled Moody, "He's taken down all the modifications to his room."

"He wrote letters!" announced Remus, "one for Ron and Hermione… He left one for me!" Remus read through the parchment and quickly said the password. Once he was done, he sighed in relief and keyed Moody into the parchment. After Moody read it, he said;

"The boy's good… We'll tell Dumbledore that he's gone and there's no way of tracing him."

"I think Kinsley and I are missing something here," said Tonks, huffing in annoyance.

"Harry has left to continue his 'project'" they snickered, and Moody keyed them into the communication parchment and handed it to them to read.

Twenty minutes later, they were back at the Burrow and Dumbledore was in a bad mood.

"…no sign of a struggle… no sign of anything else, though… trunk was still there… letter for Ron and Hermione… can't be tracked… broom gone… yes, cloak's gone too… no, he didn't apparate… no, there's no portkey residue… window was locked from the inside… Dursley's don't know anything… yes, I checked… I'm sure… seemed quite pleased… yes… yes, that's all…" Remus, Kingsley, Moody and Tonks finished their report after many interruptions.

"We _must find him._ He is too important to the war effort to lose. Remus! Arthur! You're in charge of Diagon Alley. Kingsley! Tonks! You two get Hogsmeade. Jones! Diggle! Knight Bus! Snape! Check with Voldemort. I trust I don't need to tell you to be discreet. Moody! Patrol Little Whinging. Weasley! Granger! Send letters- track them. Fletcher! Check all the places a 16 year old boy might stay at around London and Hogsmeade. Anywhere else he might go? Fred, George, question people. Once again, be careful. We don't need to alert the Death Eaters that he is missing. McGonagall- visit all of his friends and dorm mates- I have the list of people in his little army you can have. Arthur! Kingsley! Ask around at the Ministry- records of underage magic, department of transport, anything you can think of. That concludes the emergency meeting, except… Lupin! Stay behind."

"Yes, Professor?"

"You mentioned a letter to Weasley and Granger. I need it." Remus tried to protest, but finally gave in, hoping that Harry had predicted this. Dumbledore read through the letter.

"They are supposed to be his _friends!_ There are _no_ clues in here. _Nothing! _He actually planned this!" Remus rolled his eyes.

"He is _smart, _you know!" Dumbledore huffed and left, missing Remus' satisfied smirk.

Harry turned the _spy paper _off and sighed. He had just finished watching that scene for the 6th time, and it was starting to get a little boring. He lay in bed, thinking over his first week of training. It had been intense. His first 'physical activities' had been 3 hours of a non-stop obstacle course… not that he lasted that long. He was instructed to run, and had to dodge trees, buildings, animals, curses and the like, some of which materialised seconds before he ran into them. His wand had been locked away in his room, along with his weaponry and any form of defence. He had been stunned more times than he could count and was sporting multiple cuts and bruises, which Helga had been forbidden from healing. He had been given 10 minutes to prepare his meals for the day before he was expected at Merlin's first class. He was extremely thankful for the food cabinet. The first half of the lesson, he had been instructed to read _Basic Wards for Beginners_ and in the second half of the lesson; he had to place the wards around the classroom. The wards were extremely draining and by the end of the lesson, Harry was feeling incredibly weak. His second lesson was curse breaking, where he was being taught to recognise the different 'feel' of curses, wards and the like. By the end of the lesson, he could feel the difference between all of the wards he had placed that morning by extending his magic out to them. Harry had stuffed down lunch, before heading to his next class. That one was different; Merlin would give him a project to complete, and a certain number of weeks to complete it. His first project was to create his own staff, so he spent the rest of the lesson reading up on wandlore and staff creation. Advanced Apparition was again different. First, he would be learning basic apparition, which was taught to most competent wizards. He wold then move to silent and advanced apparition, then elvin teleportation and goblin apparition and lastly, shadow walking. He would also be learning the benefits and drawbacks of each type of transport, before moving to other forms of transportation, such as portkeys and floo (connecting fireplaces, making power, pros and cons, etc. etc.) Once he was done, the class would be renamed 'communication' where he would learn all the different ways of communication; telepathy, communication parchments, floo, memos, etc. By the end of the lesson, Harry had managed to splinch himself twice. Harry stuffed down his dinner before heading to stealth and tracking. Here, he would be learning to check for magical 'residue' as well as how to notice where people had been in both muggle and magical ways. Stealth could not be learnt, but he was taught different ways to hide his tracks and remain unnoticed. Once he had mastered this, his tutors would take it in turns to conceal themselves, and Harry would have to track them without being spotted by the others. By 10 o'clock, Harry was exhausted. He spent an hour researching staffs before falling asleep, still in his duelling robes.

Tuesday had been just as demanding with Helga. The obstacle course was just as difficult, and he added to the cuts and bruises that now littered his body.

"A warrior learns to wear his scars with pride," Godric had told him. "also, if you can build up a tolerance to pain and learn to ignore your injuries, you will last longer in a duel where you can't stop to heal every minor cut you receive. Hey! Some more scars might help you disguise that hideous one on your forehead! I know you can't hide it even with your morphing. No scar can be hidden by metamorph abilities." Helga's other classes were fun, but just as magically draining as Merlin's. Arithmancy was interesting, and Harry found that the work he had done by himself was no real help as Helga wanted him working at a whole new level. Charms was taught in a similar way to Harry's classes at Hogwarts but much faster, and with more focus on charms to help him out in a duel.

"You need as much help as you can get before you face Godric in a duel on Thursday!" was Helga's exact words. Helga had combined his elvin and goblin magic classes and the first half of the lesson, Harry was given a grounding in the languages, and the second half was spent learning the basics of their magic. Both races were not permitted to handle wands, so the magic was much more draining on his core and would stay that way until he got used to using his hands as channels for large amounts of magic. Healing was Harry's favourite subject so far- and not because it was easy. The potions would be covered in lessons with Salazar, but Harry began learning different ways to heal every injury that could be inflicted on their 'patients'- Godric's duelling dummies one he was through with them, as well as some rats which Harry preferred to use simply because it allowed him to imagine inflicting injuries on Wormtail. By the end of the lesson, Harry was sufficiently exhausted and fell asleep just as quickly as he had the night before- but not without spending an hour continuing his research into staff making.

Rowena's lessons were fast and furious. She had nodded approvingly at the sped reading pendant before throwing him a huge pile of books to read and told him to finish reading them before the end of the day, preferring to teach at her own pace rather than follow the schedule. He was then quizzed at the end of the day and Harry had to give all the credit to his new eidetic memory- he wouldn't have lasted one question without it.

Thursday with Godric had been the most draining day yet. His physical activities class had been modified to Merlin and Godric chasing Harry, showering curses and jinxes at his back, the curses ranging from the minor tripping-jinx, to legal versions of a pain curse- legal only because no one knew how to use it anymore, as it was just as painful as a _crucio. _He had lasted 2 hours before he finally collapsed, and the two men had not wasted any time in grabbing him and throwing him into the lake, instructing him to swim for the remainder of the hour. Just under an hour later, an exhausted Harry had crawled out of the lake. He was given a small break in his first 2 classes, muggle studies and transfiguration, where Godric had instructed him to talk about and display everything he knew. Duelling and Martial Arts had been a disaster- Harry had been thrown around the room for all 6 hours without getting anywhere near Godric even once. After he shoved down his dinner, Harry dragged himself to languages, where Merlin and Rowena had begun his introduction to Latin, which would help him with his spell casting, apparently. By 10 o'clock, Harry didn't have any energy left, so he collapsed on his bed without even thinking about opening one of his books.

Friday was the day that Harry had been dreading, but his fears were unfounded. Salazar Slytherin was quick and witty, and fun to talk to. He also had an… advanced vocabulary when he occasionally slipped into paresltongue to swear. (he was apparently so used to no one being able to understand his paresltongue; he had slipped into a habit of swearing in that particular language.) Harry was relieved that all he had been taught about Salazar Slytherin was a lie, at any rate. Salazar had begun all of his lessons by lecturing Harry on the theory of the subject, telling him that it would help him advance more quickly. He had also given him the task of creating a belt to store potions in, keeping them safe even whilst he was in the middle of a violent duel.

Saturday had come, and his physical activities class, while brutal, gave him less scars than ever before as he was beginning to 'feel' each curse coming towards him and was able to dodge the more painful ones. Harry was surprised to find he was a natural at wandless and wordless casting and found it gave him more flexibility in what he could and couldn't cast. His 'misc.' lessons were all different- revision with Helga and Rowena, but Salazar and Godric had other ideas. Godric had worked with Harry on the animagus transformation, and Harry completed his first two forms- the snow leopard and the lion and spent the lesson getting used to his new animal forms. Salazar had told him to

"Get working on your belt, I want it finished before we begin brewing any noteworthy potions." So Harry spent the lesson working on his design.

His tutors had decided to give him his first Sunday off so that he would have some time to rest as it was a demanding schedule. Harry had spent the day working on his belt and staff, and by 7pm, the belt was done, he just needed to add the final charms. That was when he had lain down and begun to watch the scene that had unfolded at the Burrow when they had found he was missing. Harry smirked. Remus was good, and he grabbed the communication paper.

_Mooney, and anyone else that's there-_

_Thanks for covering for me, you were brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed watching Dumbledore's reaction- priceless! Enjoying my 'project,' my tutors are definitely good._ _Horrible to learn from, they prefer a more physical approach, but good fun to chat with and be around! Exhausting, though. I managed the animagus transformation!_

_Can't wait to see you in a year,_

_Firepaw._

Back at the Burrow, Remus and Moody were staring at the communication paper.

"He's managed the animagus transformation! He's been gone a day! _A day!_ Less!" exclaimed Remus.

"The boys powerful… wonder who agreed to train him. They sound good enough," growled Moody.

_Firepaw-_

_Great name, by the way! No problem- I'm- We're glad you enjoyed the show. You've already managed the transformation? That's incredible! Can you tell us who your tutors are? Moody here is jealous of them. By the way- Congratulations! You successfully impressed Mad-Eye!_

_Mooney (and Moody)_

Remus sighed as he sent the message through. He had just lost Sirius, the last remaining Marauder, and now his only cub, Harry, had disappeared off to no one knows where. He still had the communication paper, but it wasn't the same as having him around. Still, her reminded himself, he was being trained properly which he wouldn't get around here with Dumbledore hanging around, and it wasn't as if they couldn't communicate. He had to hand it to Harry- the parchment was excellent.

Meanwhile, Moody was examining the parchment. They boy had always impressed him, but this- this was something else. It was above NEWT level charms at least! He wondered if he could replicate it for the Order… but that wasn't fair on Harry. He couldn't claim it as his own idea even if he wanted to- he wasn't creative enough. There was no one he could take it to that wouldn't ask questions and had both the creativity and skill to pass it off as their own idea. And he could approach Dumbledore and say;

"Albus, by the way, we never told you before, but Harry left a form of communication for us. He called it a communication parchment. No, you can't see it, he told us to keep silent. Anyway, I was wondering if we could replicate the idea for the Order…" no, that would not go down well. He growled to himself. Potter was 16. _16! _When he created the parchment.


	3. Harold Emmeris

_**Harold Emmeris**_

It was the middle of the school year, and Ron and Hermione were failing almost every subject. When Harry had been there, they had always tried to be better than him because he was famous. They had wanted to prove that they were better than the precious '_boy-who-lived._' Now, though…

"Weasley! Granger! Stop snogging, and _start paying attention!_" came Professor Tonks' voice. The rest of the class sniggered.

"Tonks, your class is _boring! _If you taught us something interesting, we might pay attention," said Ron snobbishly.

"If a duelling tournament doesn't interest you, that's fine. Weasley, you're excused," snapped Tonks. Ron gaped at her.

"But Tonks!"

"Leave- or we shall have Weasley versus all of the Slytherin 6th years for the first round."

"I choose to duel Slytherin," said Ron smugly, "I've been learning Auror level curses, so Slytherin will be a pushover."

"We shall see," said Tonks.

Ten minutes later, a heavily bleeding Ron was stunned and lying in the corner of the room. The Slytherins had taken advantage of having permission to jinx the Gryffindor, and had toyed with him before Zabini took pity on him and sent a stunner at him.

"He will stay there for the rest of the lesson, and hope that he learns to respect his teachers," said Tonks who had long ago had her patience worn out by the youngest Weasley male. The Slytherins cheered.

"But Professor!"

"Detention, Granger, or round two will be the Slytherins against you." It was a long time later that Hermione was finally added to the corner- Zabini had not taken pity on her and due to the fact she was a muggleborn and had been a know-it-all for the first 5 years of school, the Slytherins had even more fun jinxing her than they had Ron.

A week later, Ron and Hermione had been called up to see Dumbledore. They had been stripped of their prefect badges and told that if their grades didn't improve, they would be asked to repeat 5th year.

"But Dumbledore, I wasted the first 5 years of my education spying on Potter… _on your orders! _It's not my fault I'm failing! And with him gone, I can't even steal his notes for exams!" whined Ron. Hermione sniffed.

"I was too busy spying last year to do any proper studying and now I'm trying my hardest to catch up to the rest of the class."

"FINE! IF you two manage to keep spying on any future Death Eaters, like Malfoy effectively, I will allow you to pass to 7th year. I have no control over NEWT marking, though, and if you fail them I will have no choice but to make you stay at Hogwarts for another year. Be warned; I will have to convince all of your Professors to let you into their classes next year, so DON'T act up in class! Now go and get comfortable spying before I change my mind letting you move to 7th year next year."

In a secluded area of the Burrow…

"You mean, Potter is destined to kill Voldemort, and Albus refused to give him _any_ training? He just trained his friends to protect him?" said McGonagall, shocked.

"You mean his _spies,_" spat Remus.

"But Why? Why would he do that to him? Potter is a _boy_! Not a sacrificial lamb!" said McGonagall.

"Albus thought that it would be too _dangerous_ to train the boy. He might have gone _Dark_ with all that knowledge, and he was too _important_ to the Light side," growled Moody.

"That's ridiculous! How can anyone kill a Dark Lord with only their OWLs?"

"Quite. Luckily for us, Potter had managed to sneak out of his home and heard that particular conversation. So, he took matters into his own hands and went off training for a year. He also invented a communication parchment which allows us to communicate with him. We'll get permission for you to read it now- he managed to charm it so only people he gave permission to read it could see it," said Kingsley.

_Firepaw-_

_Permission for Minerva McGonagall to join communication parchment? Trustworthy. How's training going? _

_Mooney._

A reply came through almost immediately.

_Mooney (and Moody, Kingsley and Tonks)_

_Request Granted. Hi Professor! To answer your question, Training's going great! The other day, I beat Godric in a duel with a blindfold on! Only one problem- he passed my duelling training on to Merlin. Hey, guess what? I got my 'Halfway Presents' yesterday! Salazar gave me a potion to fix my eyesight. Everything is so clear now! Rowena gave me a book… no surprises there! Merlin gave me a duel… weapon of my choice. I chose the sword. That was a mistake. Helga gave me… the day off. And Godric officially entitled me a Mage. We also decided that when I come back, I'll be in disguise for a while, but I'll reveal myself to you guys. Spying on the Order meetings isn't the same as being there with you. Talk to you all soon!_

_Firepaw._

"Did he… what… Godric…_ Merlin? …duel…_ please don't?" McGonagall fainted.

"Ennervate," Remus sighed, and McGonagall sat up.

"That was our reaction as well. Yes, he is being trained by the founders of Hogwarts _and Merlin._ And yes, he just beat _Godric Gryffindor _in a duel, _blindfolded!_" said Moody proudly.

At Merlin's Castle, Harry was chuckling to himself. He had pinned the spy paper up on the wall of his hut and was watching McGonagall faint again while he put the finishing touches on his new trunk. The other day, Merlin had decided that if he was actively hunting down Voldemort, he wouldn't have the luxury of living in a castle. Harry had been given a rucksack and 5 minutes to pack '_the essentials.' _Harry had thrown in all of the weapons he had crafted, his wand, staff, duelling and potions robes, a cauldron and his travel kit of potions ingredients along with his potions belt. The communication and spy parchments went in on top. He had then been told that his next year of training he would be living rough, with no one to help him, and he would need to move locations at least once a week, as Rowena was giving him a weeks' head start before attempting to track him. If he returned to Merlin's Castle before the year was up, he would 'fail.' Merlin then apparated him to a thick woodland area and left. Harry had moved around for a few hours, making sure he left no tracks before finally stopping and warding the area heavily. He quickly constructed a small hut, dumped his rucksack, grabbed his weapons and went hunting. Harry soon fell into a good routine of hunting, cooking, brewing, crafting and moving locations regularly. Harry had planned on making a tent that would make it easier to live in and move around. However when that failed, he decided on a trunk different to any he had ever seen before. The trunk was a handsome reddish brown colour, with his initials stamped in gold on the sides. The trunk appeared to have two compartments, and the first was completely unremarkable, but did allow his rucksack to retire. The second compartment was what made the trunk special. It was so heavily warded that no one apart from Harry would ever be able to get in. When he entered the trunks, he ended up in a room not unlike the Gryffindor common room at Hogwarts. However, the door that led to the dorms at Hogwarts was actually a portal to the other 8 hidden compartments.

The first was a kitchen/dining room with dimensions similar to those of the Burrow, but with nicer furnishings.

The second was a huge library, dwarfing the one at Hogwarts, although he was yet to fill it, as books were scarce when he was 'on the run.'

The third was a bedroom- the most interesting bedroom Harry had ever seen, although he liked it. The ceiling was charmed in a similar was to the ceiling in the Great Hall at Hogwarts- to reflect the sky. The walls had been charmed to show a forest surrounding him. The bed had been carved by hand out of an oak tree Harry had felled and the sheets were actually enlarged blades of grass with warming and cushioning charms. He had no mattress- An overly powerful cushioning charm looked better and was just as comfortable. The wardrobe was carved out of another large tree. The floor had been charmed to look and feel as though it was grass.

The fourth compartment was a bathroom that had been modelled on the Prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts, but larger. Harry had been experimenting with his potions one day, and had managed to create a modified version of the Philosopher's stone, but it didn't produce the elixir of life. Harry had…tested… the stone by letting it run wild in his new bathroom… and it had worked, making his already impressive bathroom even more so- it was solid gold. He destroyed the stone soon after and obliviated the knowledge of how to create it out of him. He knew those stones were more trouble than they were worth- the Flamel's had proven that.

Compartments five, six and seven were a duelling room, potions lab and study respectively.

The final compartment was Harry's favourite, and by far the largest. It held a huge Quidditch pitch, modelled on the one at the World Cup in his fourth year. The walls were charmed to replicate the stands and the ceiling was charmed in the same way as his bedroom. He could fly as high as he wanted to- the compartment would automatically expand. There was even a light breeze, courtesy of his new elemental powers. The portal was placed where the players changing rooms would have been.

Over the year, Harry discovered that he really enjoyed crafting, and spent hours making bits and pieces for himself and his trunk, knowing that handmade and crafted things were generally stronger and would last a lot longer than things that had been conjured.

When the year was up, Harry packed his things and apparated silently as he had fallen into a habit of doing, to discover that Godric had devised an ambush for him.

Over his last 10 years at Merlin's Castle, Harry improved rapidly. By the end of his stay, he had mastered all of the subjects he had been taught. He could wield his staff as competently as any other weapon he had got his hands on, including his wand. His fitness levels had skyrocketed and in one of his practical sessions he had discovered that he could run non-stop for over 12 hours. Harry had read the entire library at Merlin's Castle and had, just yesterday, finally managed to defeat Merlin in a duel. His tutors had agreed that they had nothing left to teach him and they had already taught him a lot more than they had planned on. Now, it was Harry's final night at Merlin's Castle and the 6 of them were discussing Harry's return to normal time.

"We've already decided that you will go back in disguise…you need a _name… _and a story…"

"Bob"

"James"

"Salgoric"

"Godrsalazar"

"Shut up, both of you! You're being ridiculous! Hi, my name's Godrsalazar, what's yours? Harry would be teased to the end of the Earth and back again! Get _real!_" said Rowena, annoyed.

"Harold Emmeris," said Merlin, "It's close enough to Harry and Emrys that Harry will be able to remember it, but no one will make the connection between _Harry Potter _and _Harold Emmeris_."

"Sure, sounds good. My name is now Harold Emmeris… Wow, that'll take some getting used to!"

"Good. Now, remember, you need to be at Hogwarts, 'cause that's where Tommy Boy will try to be."

"I don't feel like being a student, though, I'm already better than all of the Professors in their own subjects! And I'd have to be in a class with Weasley and Granger… urgh!"

"Get a teaching position. 'Professor Emmeris'… it even _sounds_ good!"

"At _17? _I'll need an impressive resume!"

"DADA position. It _is_ your best subject, and the previous Professor just resigned."

"I haven't even taken my NEWTs, though… D'you really think Dumbledore would let an unqualified 17 year old teach his classes even if I beat him in a duel?"

"Ah… hadn't thought about that… go to the Ministry tomorrow and take your NEWTs."

"Might as well get your Mastery in a few subjects while you're at it. Once you get your NEWTs, we'll give you a note to give to them and you take it along with your NEWTs to the Mastery department. The tests are similar to the NEWTs, harder, obviously… you get your results the same day, though… and it's just pass or fail… no proper grading."

"Wear your formal robes for that!"

"He doesn't have to…"

"_Yes,_ he _does!_"

"Fine!" While they were arguing, Harry looked down at the note;

_To Whom It May Concern,_

_I present my Apprentice, Harold James Emmeris to you. He has worked hard to gain the skills of a Master, and it is my belief that he has obtained all of the skills necessary to obtain his Mastery in all fields. He has met my standards, and I am no longer his master. _

_Regards,_

_Master Emrys_

_Master of All Subjects_

"Wow," whispered Harry, bringing his 'masters' back to earth.

"Okay, Harry, we'll leave the particulars of your disguise up to you. There's just one thing left…" said Merlin mysteriously.

"What's that?" asked Harry, confused.

"Tomorrow's your Birthday!" Godric was bouncing in excitement. "You're not going to be here tomorrow, so we have to give you your presents early!"

"Happy 17th Birthday, Harry!" said Rowena happily. "I'm giving you a copy of every book in the library. It's self-updating, and some of the books haven't ever been published!"

"Wow, Thanks Rowena!" Rowena had tears in her eyes.

"Harry, you're alright at potions. This is a project I have been working on for years. One vial of this, and a werewolf will never have to transform again. It's a complete cure, and I believe you are capable of brewing it, and you can claim it as your own." And image of Remus floated through Harry's mind.

"Wow- Salazar- thank you…!" Harry was almost rendered speechless. Godric brought him back to the real world, though. He had combined with Helga for his gift.

"Harry- this map is similar to the Marauder's Map… except it is complete! It shows you EVERYWHERE, including the places the marauders never knew about. It also changes, 'cause Hogwarts is sentient, it sometimes adds new rooms and the map will change to show it!" Godric's eyes were dancing and Harry chuckled. He really was a child in an adult's body. Never mind the fact that he was over 1000 years old and only alive because he was at Merlin's Castle- if he ventured out, he would collapse.

Then, it was Merlin's turn.

"Happy Birthday, Harry! It is traditional for a father to give their son a watch when they come of age, and you have been like a son to me for the last 20 years. I am not one to break tradition, so…" Harry smiled.

"Harry. You have been an honour to teach. I have loved- almost- every minute of our time with you. This pendant will help you communicate with us whenever you like. It is like telepathy, but you focus on it rather than us." Harry was overjoyed.

"Secondly, we have a gift to you from all of us as congratulations for completing your training and a reminder of the time you have spent here. This- is a phoenix egg. They are _incredibly_ rare.

When it hatches, the phoenix will bond with you. As a beast speaker and phoenix animagi, you will be able to communicate with him or her and I hope that you will treat your new phoenix well. Congratulations on completing your training and _go get Tommy boy!"_ Harry held the phoenix egg for what felt like hours, staring at all the intricate patterns on the shell. Then all of a sudden, it cracked neatly in two, revealing a tiny golden phoenix. The phoenix bonded with Harry almost immediately, as Merlin had said it would. After some discussion, Älfya revealed her name and left Harry to begin learning to fly, leaving Harry to write a note on his communication parchment.

_Hi Mooney, Kingsley, Moody, Minerva, Tonks-_

_I'm coming home tomorrow! I'll be in disguise as I said, but one day soon I will reveal myself to you. I just need to get a few things sorted out first. Älfya (my new phoenix!) and I will be at Hogwarts this year. I am so excited to see you all again! Did the Ministry __**really **__join in the search for me? See you all very soon!_

_Firepaw_

Harry then packed all of his new things into the trunk he had crafted, (including the whole library) shrunk it, and placed it in his pocket. Merlin then cancelled the time spell. (Teaching it to Harry in the process) At 4am on Harry's birthday, he was ready with his trunk and Harold Emmeris disguise on. There was a flash of light and Harry was standing in a deserted alley in London.

At 7am, Harry made his way to the visitor's entrance of the Ministry and went inside. He presented the wand he had made in his second year of training for identification, before heading up to Madam Marchbanks' office.

"Hello, Madam Marchbanks, my name is Harold Emmeris. I've been studying independently for years. I want to get a proper job now, though, and I was wondering if I could take my NEWTs?" Harry's heart was racing. He was at an age where she had a right to refuse him is she wanted to.

"You think you're good enough?"

"I do, yes."

"Age?"

"17"

"Hmph. Young. Alright, we have time, what subjects?"

"I know I'm young, but I can do this. I've studied Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies, Divination, History of Magic, Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures and Astronomy- all of the subjects that Hogwarts offers."

"Harold, you are in for a rough day." And with that, Madam Marchbanks handed him the Arithmancy NEWTs paper.

Six hours later, Harry put down his quill for the last time and handed over the paper- astronomy- to the examiner, before heading back to madam Marchbanks' office.

"You're finished _already?_" she asked disbelievingly.

"Well, yes…" said Harry, embarrassed.

"You must have had good tutors," she said faintly.

"Mmmm… Master Emrys gave me a note… once I get my NEWTS, he gave me permission to obtain a Mastery in all subjects…" Harry trailed off.

"May I see that note?" Harry handed over the note and madam Marchbanks scanned it.

"Come back tomorrow, I'll give you your results early, and if they are satisfactory, we can see about the final stage of your Mastery. Be back at 6 tomorrow morning."

"Thanks!"

As it was only 2 in the afternoon by the time Harry was done at the Ministry, Harry headed to Diagon Alley. After grabbing a quick lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, he quickly found a real estate agent and bought a block of land on a cliff overlooking Hogwarts. There was no house on it, but it rivalled the Hogwarts grounds in terms of size. He bought it, and with the goblins help, put it under the Potter name. By 7 o'clock, he had started on the wards. 3 hours later, the warding was complete, and were stronger than those surrounding the castle he looked down on. Harry sat on the edge of the cliff, looking at the lights of the castle for a while, before finally climbing into his trunk for the night.

The next morning, Harry slept in to 5am for the first time in 20 years. At 5.30, his trunk was in his back pocket and he apparated to the alley he had appeared in the morning before, realising that he would also need to get an apparition licence. He went through the same ritual at the security desk, before heading to madam Marchbanks' office. At exactly 6am, he knocked on the door.

"Ah… Good morning, Mr. Emmeris! Punctual, that's good. I have your NEWTs. I must say, they were… impressive."

_NEWT RESULTS_

_**Name: **__Harold James Emmeris_

_**Age: **__17 years_

_**Pass Grades: **__Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, Acceptable_

_**Fail Grades: **__Poor, Dreadful, Troll_

_**Ancient Runes:**__ Outstanding*_

_**Arithmancy: **__Outstanding*_

_**Astronomy:**__ Outstanding*_

_**Care of Magical Creatures: **__Outstanding*_

_**Charms: **__Outstanding*_

_**Defence against the Dark Arts: **__Outstanding*_

_**Divination: **__Outstanding*_

_**Herbology: **__Outstanding*_

_**History of Magic: **__Outstanding*_

_**Muggle Studies:**__ Outstanding*_

_**Potions: **__Outstanding*_

_**Transfiguration:**__ Outstanding*_

_You have achieved 24 NEWTs, Congratulations!_

_**Record:**__ 24._

_**Achieved by: **__Harold Emmeris_

_Please note; any subject marked with an * indicates a record score._

_Madam Marchbanks_

_**Head Examiner**_

"Wow. Cool. Can I get my Masteries, then?" madam Marchbanks gaped at him.

"Of course," she spluttered, "and call me Griselda, you've earned it!"

"Oh. Thanks."

Ten hours later, Harry left the Ministry with strict instructions to return tomorrow in 'formal' robes to receive his results and any Masteries he might have achieved. It was now four thirty in the afternoon, so Harry decided to send a note to Dumbledore with Älfya.

_To Professor Dumbledore,_

_We have never met, but my name is Harold Emmeris. I have been searching for a job teaching, and have recently learned that you are in need of a Defence against the Dark Arts Professor. If it is possible, I would like to meet with you to discuss a possible employment. I am available any day after tomorrow._

_Regards, _

_Harold Emmeris_

Harry gave the note to Älfya, and walked into Diagon Alley with the intention of getting a complete new wardrobe, as Harry Potter's clothing was not suitable.

Harry entered Madam Malkin's, and was taken hostage almost immediately by the shop assistants who had taken one look at the tall, athletic (and admittedly heavily scarred) man with long dark hair and piercing blue eyes and swooned. Two hours later, Harry left the store weighed down by 5 formal robes, 3 dress robes, 6 teaching robes, 2 duelling robes, 3 potions robes, 12 everyday, 12 dinner robes and an assortment of spell-proof and casual party robes as well as several pairs of shoes, gloves and hats all of the finest quality.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office at Hogwarts. He had been having a terrible day. No one was willing to take up the post of Defence Professor, Harry Potter was still missing and Professor Snape was looking for an assistant amongst the staff. However, there was no one good enough to teach potions! It was a nightmare.

Dumbledore sat thinking about all of his problems, and about the Order meeting in two days' time. Just as he was about to leave for the day, a flash of flame caught his eye- it was a _phoenix_… He took the note, feeling better by the line. He was willing to fill the post of DADA Professor! This person- Harold Emmeris, the note said- was quite obviously light… he used a phoenix! If only he had said he was also good at potions… but then, Hogwarts already had a Potions Master… he might be good enough for Snape. He didn't recognise the name, but in his current mood, it was of little consequence.

_Harold Emmeris_

_I __**am **__in need of a new DADA Professor. Although I know nothing of you, I am willing to meet you to remedy that situation. Be at the Leaky Cauldron at 9am in 2 days' time. If you are suitable, we will welcome you into the staff. _

_Albus Dumbledore_

_Headmaster, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

Dumbledore smiled. Maybe today hadn't been so bad after all… 

At 7pm, Harry apparated back to 'Potters' Cliff,' as he had been calling it, and began to design his new manor. By 10pm, he had the plans drawn up for a very… castle-like manor, with similar dimensions to Merlin's Castle- just over half the size of Hogwarts. He had decided that if he was going to build a large manor, he was going to do it properly. It had 3 kitchens, formal and informal living and dining rooms, an indoor Quidditch pitch, (and another outdoor one) indoor swimming pools, multiple large bedrooms- each with its own ensuite, a large library, multiple large studies, a duelling room, fitness rooms, potions lab, multiple bathrooms- all more ornate than the one in his trunk- admittedly not solid gold, an entrance hall to rival that of Hogwarts, a large gallery, an indoor running track and a large, sweeping drive. Outside, he had an already existing river, which then cascaded down the cliff and ended up in the Black Lake at Hogwarts. He decided to manipulate the river to become a moat around the manor to complete the physical protections. He had cliffs on one side and a forest surrounding most of the land, so a moat would really finish it off. Harry decided that tomorrow, after visiting the Ministry, he would see about employing some house elves to help him build.

At 5 the next morning, Harry went for his traditional run before changing into his formal robes. At 9am, he was once again in Griselda's office, waiting with baited breath.

"I have already said you were impressive, but this…" she trailed off for a few seconds before clearing her throat and continuing. "Congratulations, you have earned your Mastery in every subject you applied for. You are now the youngest person to ever obtain a single Mastery, let alone 12! So congratulations again… Master Emmeris."

The next three hours went rather slowly for Harry. First, he had been required to attend a ceremony to formally accept his Certificates of Mastery. Then, he was given a Teaching Certificate, signed by the other Masters that had attended his ceremony. Once that was complete, the reporters swarmed around him, attempting to get an interview. Hundreds of questions later, Harry made his escape, but not before hearing;

"You'll be on the front page of the _Prophet_, tomorrow, Master Emmeris!" with that threat still ringing in his ears; Harry went to see about some house elves. It took him over an hour, but finally he had 21 elves at Potter's Cliff, working on the manor. His Head House-elf, Trixy, had informed him that it would take them 4 hours to build. Harry had given them instructions on how to furnish and decorate each room apart from the master bedroom, which he would do himself. Harry walked around Diagon Alley, re-acquainting himself with it and the store owners until at five minutes to four o'clock he decided to go home to his newly built manor. When he arrived 'home,' he was shocked speechless. There was no other word for it. His new castle- for it could not be called a manor- was beautiful. The moat was blue and glistening in the afternoon sun. He wanted to dive in. When he went inside, all the breath was knocked out of him. It was more cheerful, and furnished better as well. It felt like… home. More than Hogwarts, Privet Drive or Merlin's Castle ever had. He felt truly safe and welcome for the first time in his life. He went to the portrait gallery and added the final touch to the room- He took out a bag of things he had collected from his vaults at Gringotts, and pulled out nine portraits. Now, Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Harold, Dorea, Lily and James Potter and Merlin were asleep on the walls of the room. He was just about to leave for the master bedroom, when he brushed against the wall and froze. The elves had left a surprise for him- they had made the castle _sentient. _He grinned. Life at Potter's Cliff was about to get more interesting…

It took Harry hours of crafting and spell casting, but finally the master bedroom was complete. It had the same theme as the room in his trunk- the walls and ceiling had been charmed in the exact same way, and the bed was almost identical. (Hand crafted things were never identical) The door to the room itself looked normal on the outside, but on the inside of the room it was as if you were entering the room through the hollow of a tree. The walk-in wardrobe was hidden behind a curtain of ivy, and the door to the ensuite was behind an enchanted tree. It was Trixy's addition that made the room truly special- she had morphed the charms on the walls and ceiling so they blended together, and added enchanted birds to it- that would chirp softly during the day and fall silent at night. She had then helped Harry to create a soft breeze that would work in sync with the enchantments during the day, before dying down once the light was low, and charmed the floor to reflect soft grass. The effect was- truly- magical. Harry slept more soundly that night than he had for years.

Harry woke the next morning feeling excited and nervous, and it took him a few seconds to realise why- today was the day of the _Prophet _article, and his first ever job interview. He leapt out of bed and ran to the duelling room to calm his nerves. At 8.30, Harry was dressed in his teaching robes, with his NEWTs, Teaching Certificate and certificates of Mastery in his pockets. He quickly scribbled a note on his communication parchment;

_Hi all,_

_If all goes well today, I will be able to reveal my fake identity to you on August 31__st__, but only to you guys._

_Firepaw._

…before heading to his apparition point and disappearing silently.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in a private room at the Laky Cauldron, thinking about the man he was about to meet. He knew nothing about him, his name was unfamiliar and none of his staff members had ever heard anything about him. That was both a good and bad thing. It at least proved he wasn't a senior Death Eater, although his phoenix had hinted his allegiance to the light. It was then that the owl carrying the _Daily Prophet_ flew in through the open window. Dumbledore placed the required 5 Knuts in the pouch and opened the newspaper, preparing to quickly scan the headlines before throwing it away- he was not sure why he still got it. Then the name in the headlines caught his eye;

_Master Emmeris- Youngest Master Ever!_

_Yesterday, this reporter was on hand to witness history in the making. 17 year old Harold Emmeris was presented with not one, but multiple certificates of Mastery, although the exact number remains unannounced. This makes the admirable young man the youngest ever to receive the title, as well as the first person to receive more than 5 Masteries in under 10 years. We at the Daily Prophet wish to congratulate young Harold on his Masteries... _

Dumbledore stopped there. He was meeting a 17 year old to discuss a teaching post? The boy- no, man, would be teaching students his own age! He should still be a student himself! He would not normally employ anyone of his age. However… he clearly had the qualifications. The paper had even hinted at a Teaching Certificate, and if he had a Mastery in potions, he would be killing two birds with one stone, as he would almost certainly meet his current Potions Master's requirements… but _what_ were his motives? Someone so young, so _talented,_ settling for a mere teaching post? Dumbledore was getting an odd sense of _familiarity _with the situation, and he remembered a young Tom Riddle coming and asking about the same post. He quickly shook himself out of his thoughts. The phoenix- Fawkes had informed him that her name was Älfya- _should _have silenced any doubts he had had. It was then that Harold Emmeris walked into the room, and Dumbledore couldn't stop staring at all of the scars that covered his body… this man knew how to fight, and he had quite obviously been taught the hard way. Dumbledore shuddered. Hopefully the man wouldn't have the same teaching style as his former mentor… the first years would be scared enough by the scars. Albus Dumbledore had already decided that if the man could prove his allegiance to the light, he would most definitely be receiving the post. And his eyes… he looked much older than his 17 years suggested. He folded the paper into his lap.

"Ah… Master Emmeris, I was just reading about your exceptional achievement… I believe congratulations are in order," he said.

"Thank you. I assume you are Headmaster Dumbledore?" asked Harold.

"Yes, yes, but call me Albus. Now, I believe you have expressed an interest in taking up the DADA post this year…" Dumbledore trailed off, hoping that Harold would take the hint.

"Yes, I was. I need a job, I've always enjoyed teaching, and Defence just happens to be my best subject. Not to mention the position was free…" Dumbledore almost growled in frustration.

"What are your motives?" he asked, knowing that a direct question was obviously the only way to get information out of the young man in front of him.

"Well, first and foremost, we are at war. If students are incapable of defending themselves, they are as good as dead. Too many people have died for me at the hands of our foes, and I feel it is my turn to give something back- teaching is the most obvious choice for me. Also, I believe that Hogwarts will soon be threatened by Voldemort, and although I have never visited the castle, I have a connection with it through my ancestors… I have to protect the castle and its inhabitants with all the strength I possess," said Harold passionately.

"Admirable… but prove you are truly working for the Light," said Dumbledore, although certain that the man had already proven his allegiance to the Light many times over. Harold quickly rolled up his left sleeve, showing an unmarked forearm.

"If that is not enough proof for you, then… Älfya!" The golden phoenix that Dumbledore had seen once before flamed into the room, landed on Harold's shoulder and began to trill happily. It was then that Albus Dumbledore was finally certain that he was making the right decision.

"This position is not normally given to one so young, but considering the circumstances… Welcome to the staff- Professor," said Dumbledore seriously, before holding out his hand for the younger man to shake.

"Thank you… Albus," said Harold shyly, the hesitation at using his first name not going unnoticed by the old Headmaster.

"On to other matters, or… no, Severus can make the request himself… Err… staff meeting at 9am on the 31st of August, Professor! 'Harold' grinned.


	4. Professor Emmeris

_**Professor Emmeris**_

The rest of the month passed without incident for Harry, who spent the last weeks of his true freedom training and writing up lesson plans, but mainly relaxing and enjoying the true peace at Potter's Cliff- he had never felt it anywhere else. All too soon, in Harry's opinion at least, it was August 31st and Harry Potter was walking up the Hogwarts drive to attend his first ever staff meeting. Harry smirked to himself. His old classmates would be entering 7th year- the last and most gruelling year Hogwarts offered, while he, Harry, got to enjoy all the benefits of being a Professor- private quarters, no house rivalry and no exams! He could put Malfoy in detention! Snape couldn't sabotage his potions grades, and the man wouldn't see him as the son of James Potter… Life was, for once- being good to one Harry James Potter. He focused on the pendant hanging around his neck and thought;

'_Merlin! You're the best! Thanks so much for all the training, its greatly appreciated!'_

'_Touch the walls.'_

'_Why?'_

'_Just do it!'_ Harry softly and subtly brushed against the walls of the castle, and heard another, unknown voice in his head;

'_Welcome, Professor, descendant of my creators. I am here to aid you, if only you would call for my assistance. I would give it willingly.' _

'_Um… thanks… Hogwarts'. _

Soon, Harry had reached the staffroom. He quickly gathered his thought and emotions and hid them behind his (extremely impressive) Occlumency shields, and stepped inside.

"Ah, Harold, I was about to send someone to come and find you!" Harry shrugged.

"The Castle willingly gave it's assistance in the matter of…directions," said Harry nervously. Dumbledore stared at him, before allowing Harry to melt into the background of the room. Harry was remembering the only times he had ever come in here; 1st year he had managed to walk in on Snape dressing horrible wounds inflicted upon him by a three headed dog that Hagrid had christened _Fluffy. _The second and last time (as a student) was in Harry's second year when he, along with Ron had discovered that Ginny had been captured and taken into the Chamber of Secrets. He shuddered, but was quickly brought out of his musings by the commencement of the first staff meeting of the year.

The meeting went smoothly until the very end, when Dumbledore had announced Harrys' job.

"…Finally I would like to announce the newest addition to the staff, Professor Harold Emmeris!" Dumbledore had announced cheerfully. The people grouped in the small staff room began to mutter about his age and Masteries, with the majority of the staff eying him suspiciously, however Dumbledore was not finished.

"…and I want you all to wish him good luck in his new position." A few more suspicious mumbles were replaced by a chorus of good luck, although it did not sound very enthusiastic. Snape, on the other hand, was looking almost… excited. His motives were soon discovered.

"Emmeris? Emmeris? Did you by any chance get one of your Masteries in Potions?" It was quite clear Snape knew he did, but it was the best way for him to begin the conversation.

"I did, Professor. Why do you ask?"

"I am in need of some… assistance with my classes. None of the other Professors, however, have the sufficient qualifications to teach in my lab," he sneered the last part. "…the first years especially are so frightened by the…rumours… about me; they are incapable of producing even the simplest of potions."

"Fine, fine… I'll help you in your class _if _I can send any failing Gryffindors to you for a detention. I have heard stories about a pair of 7th years that are incapable of raising a basic shield charm…" Harry trailed off, noticing that most of the Professors brightened at the thought of Ron and Hermione in detention with Snape.

"Why are you asking that of me? Surely you are capable of conducting your own detentions…"

"Oh, I am. However I have also heard the stories about how _well _the three of you get on," said Harry brightly, and the Professors all but snickered at the angry looking Potions master. "…anyway, shall we meet later to discuss this properly?"

"After breakfast, the day we get our schedules." Harry nodded his agreement and the conversation was dropped for the time being.

"That concludes the staff meeting, Harold, stay as we need to discuss your quarters and classroom."

"Of course, Professor. Umm… Professor McGonagall, can I talk to you later, please?"

"After lunch, Harold," said Minerva curtly, before walking away.

"Thank you, Harold. Let us walk to your classroom to discuss this further." Harry smirked inwardly, thinking over and over again- _My classroom! _Soon, though, Harry had a thought. He trailed just behind Dumbledore, before focusing entirely on the older man and imitating his voice before projecting;

'_I think I will give Harold an extra classroom, with the second one right next to it. Two classrooms… I have a strange feeling the man will need them both…' _and then cut off the projection. Sure enough, no sooner than he had finished projecting Dumbledore the thought, the old man turned around and said;

"Harold, I have never done this before, however I have a strange feeling that you could make use of having 2 classrooms rather than the usual one." Harry smirked; still trailing just far enough behind the elder man hat he was unable to see his reaction.

"Thank you, Albus; I have a strange feeling that you are right."

Before long, the pair of them reached a classroom, and Dumbledore opened the door.

"This is your first, or ain classroom, and that door-" Dumbledore flicked his wand and a door appeared- "leads to your second classroom, which doesn't yet have external access, which is your task if you desire it. You may set them up however you wish, but the basic supplies are already in there. Up the top of those stairs is your office and living quarters are beyond that, behind the door. We'll go up and have a look now, shall we?" Harry nodded, and followed Dumbledore up the stairs, remembering all the times he had walked up the very same stairs as a student. They walked into the reasonably large office, and Harry was instantly reminded of Umbridge and her blood quill. Tonks, as the Defence professor after Umbridge, had not entirely gotten rid of the pink and it made the room even more recognisable as Umbridge's. It would need immediate redecoration. He clenched his fist and saw a faint outline of the words _I must not tell lies, _before pulling himself back to the present to listen to his speech.

"… most teachers do not have quarters directly off their office, but for some strange reason, Hogwarts sets it up this way for the Defence professors. Now, if you go through that door, you will find your quarters. You have a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living and dining rooms. The rooms are fairly basic, but I believe you have the skills to fix it up anyway you like, and most of the staff rarely use the kitchen and dining rooms, preferring to eat in the Great Hall with the rest of their colleagues. Well, I'll leave you to it! Lunch is in the Great Hall… I believe you arranged to speak with Minerva? I'll send someone up to show you the way then!"

"No need, Albus, It would be a bad look if the DADA Professor had to be shown around the castle all the time! If I get lost, the Castle will show me the way!" Dumbledore nodded and left, causing Harry to sigh in relief. Then, he pulled out his wand, ready to make the office his own.

"Goodbye, Umbridge!" He tapped the wand to the top of his trunk, enlarging it, before he pulled out all of the weaponry he had crafted- and hung all the pieces on the wall. He then warded them so only he could take them down. The walls were painted a bright, Gryffindor red. An oak dresser was conjured and placed in the back of the room before all his Dark Detectors were arranged neatly on it. Another flick of his wand, and there was a perch for Älfya- He had not seen Hedwig once he sent him away before he left. The chair was transfigured into something much more comfortable. The desk, he pulled out of his trunk, having carved it himself during his year-long stay in the forest at Merlin's Castle. Harry then stood back and admired the effect he had created. It was a bright room, but still sufficiently intimidating. It would be a nice, easy place to work in, but not a place that would encourage students to muck around in. He knew that being the same age as a 7th year, he would need to project a slightly intimidating aura to get the message across- he was not a student, and would be treated with the respect of a Professor. Harry smiled, then went downstairs to work on his classrooms. The first room was fine- a few _reparos, _and no one would have ever guessed that Tonks had been the previous Professor. The second classroom, however, needed work. He quickly sent all of the furniture to the sides of the room and sent a message to Hogwarts.

'_Hogwarts, I need external access for this classroom. Can you please place the door right next to the door to my other classroom, but leave it unlabelled. I want it to be a surprise.' _

'_Okay, Professor!' _Almost immediately, a door materialised, and Harry smiled, before magically enlarging the room. He was already getting quite proficient at setting up duelling rooms, but this one was going to be different. He transfigured a desk into a duelling platform, not unlike the one he had seen Lockhart use in his second year and placed it at the back of the classroom, before warding it so that no spells could go astray and hit a student whilst a duel was going on. He then transfigured all of the chairs into beanbags and grouped them around at the bottom of the duelling platform and vanished the rest of the furniture that had been in the room previously. Harry placed cushioning charms on the walls, door and floor so that spells could be practiced without too much injury to the student body. He painted the walls a cheery yellow-golden colour before unrolling some posters he had collected on his visits to Diagon Alley. There were posters of basic spells that the students would learn, and their effects. The _expelliarmus _poster displayed a person losing their wand, whilst the _protego _showed a shield. There were almost 50 spell posters on the walls. He also had posters of people in a duel and famous duellists. By then it was almost 1, so Harry made his way down to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Wonder who the new DADA Professor is," mused Ron.

"Whoever it is, forgot to assign a textbook… they probably won't be very good," said Hermione.

"Won't be very good? No reading! Of course he'll be good! If he picks on the Slytherins, he'll be the best Professor Hogwarts has…" said Ron dreamily.

"Or she," said Hermione snobbishly. "Whoever it is, they are very irresponsible! How is anyone supposed to do well if they don't read about it beforehand?"

"Perhaps the new professor expects their 7th year students to be able to take an active role in their own education and do their own private reading before term starts?" suggested Remus mildly.

"Yeah, Hermy, most _normal _people don't read before school starts! Even Potter didn't, and he was first in DADA." Hermione turned to Remus, ignoring Ron.

"Lupin, did you read about Harold Emmeris?"

"Yes, I did," said Remus, clearly wondering where the conversation was going.

"He's only 17, and he's already got his Masteries in so many subjects…"

"I read that, Hermione."

"Oh. Well, have you ever met him?"

"No."

"Oh… he's so _handsome, _though…" Just then, Kingsley walked in the door.

"Just received a message from Albus… The new DADA professor has requested that all students from 3rd year and above should find themselves a book on proper duelling etiquette. Apparently, it doesn't matter which book, as long as it has the correct rules in it." Remus smirked… duelling etiquette… Ron and Hermione were in for one tough year in Defence. He wondered vaguely if he should warn the new professor, but then realised that Minerva had probably done that already… and Severus would as well. Then his thoughts drifted back to Harry. He had said he would reveal himself today, and so far he had nothing. It was already past 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and Kingsley, Tonks and Moody ad joined him at the Burrow… Minerva was busy at Hogwarts, but she was going to join them later in the afternoon if he still hadn't shown himself.

Back at Hogwarts, lunch was underway, and Harry had already listed the books he wanted. The first years had been asked to collect Quentin Tremble's book- it was his first year textbook and was very thorough on the background of the Dark Arts and an introduction to Defence. The only thing it was missing was the actual spells and curses- but Harry didn't need a textbook for that. He had then asked the 2nd years to get the same book, as they had not received it from Tonks. The 3rd through to 7th years were asked to get books on duelling etiquette. Third and fourth years were also asked to get _Defending Yourself against Dark Forces- How to Make a Quick Escape. _The 5th and 6th years were asked to get _Defending Yourself Against Dark Forces- When The Odds Are Against You. _It was the second edition to the book the 3rd and 4th years were asked to get, making it easier for the younger students to _accidentally_ buy the textbook for their next years if they wanted to get ahead. The books themselves were good, in Harry's opinion- they were thorough in both the practical application of Defence and the theory and history behind it. Harry then asked the 7th years to get a copy of _The Great Duels and The Spells They Used… _he knew that some 7th years would be unable to understand it, so he made it optional. He then asked for the school to get copies of _101 shield spells and their counters _and _Defence for the Average Wizard_ for him to keep in the classroom.

When Snape had heard him ask for books on duelling etiquette, he had smirked, and said;

"I can help you with warding the classroom, if you like. I would offer to help you run the class, however I believe you will need a qualified healer stationed outside the classroom… you'll all be needing one in less than 10 minutes, especially in the class containing Weasley and Granger…"

"Thanks a _lot, _Severus, for your confidence in my abilities to run a successful duelling class. The warding is complete, by the way, and you can rest it for yourself if your doubt my strength… as for the healer part, I am a healer, just haven't gone for my qualifications yet. Same as my apparition licence. I really need to get that soon… Apparating illegally isn't a good idea for a… well… you get my point…"

"Ah… either Poppy or I can get you your healing qualifications. Normally, you would have to prove your skills to us, but I believe you have been trained well enough. Too many Masteries…"

"Thanks, Severus!"

"No problem. I'll get it to you tomorrow, before the students arrive. Also… I might be able to send an apparition licence to you without you having to do the exam… I have Slytherin contacts in high places…" Snape smirked at him.

"Cool, thanks! Hey, Minerva… can I speak to you in my office later? Or yours, if you prefer…"

"Of course, Harold, I have some things I must attend to, but I will be at your office about half an hour after lunch is finished."

"Thank you," said Harry, relieved. The rest of the meal passed smoothly, with Harry hearing Dumbledore muttering about how he hoped that Potter would return to school for his final year, and how it had been 'very, very irresponsible,' running away like that. Harry was instantly reminded of Fudge, and smirked.

Before long, the teachers were leaving the hall and Harry made his way up to his office thinking about all the things he had learnt. Who knew that Snape the Dungeon Bat had a sense of humour? It was almost incomprehensible. When Harry got to his office, Harry immediately took Snape's advice and used a mild sticking charm to attach his Certificates of Mastery and Teaching Certificate to the wall behind the desk and smirked. It was once again, both intimidating and helpful. It showed that he had the skills to help the students in any subject- as he knew it could be embarrassing to go to your subject teacher to ask for help. It also encouraged the students to approach him when they had a question- he was, after all, their age and the certificates showed that he also had the knowledge to answer their questions. Harry then set to work on his desk, emptying rolls of parchment into it, arranging ink and quills and laying out the lesson plans.

Then, there was a knock on the door. Harry knew it would seem arrogant to simply say 'Enter,' so he went to the door and opened it. Minerva walked in and looked around.

"Gryffindor colours," she said approvingly. "Make sure no one else can get to those weapons…"

"They can't," Harry cut in.

"You've got a Mastery in transfiguration?" she asked excitedly, before remembering that Harry wanted to talk to her.

"You wanted to talk to me?" she asked. Harry prepared himself.

"I did… I had promised to reveal myself to you today…" Harry trailed off, before dropping the Harold Emmeris disguise. There was a moment of silence, as Minerva quickly sat down, then-

"Harry?" Harry nodded.

Half an hour later, Harry was forced to administer a calming drought, as Minerva was quickly becoming hysterical. Once she was calm, Minerva stared at Harry as he took out the communication parchment to scribble a note to his other friends.

_Mooney, Kingsley, Tonks and Moody-_

_I promised to reveal myself today, and so I will. Meet me outside the Hogsmeade branch of Scrivenshafts at 7pm tonight. I have sent a message to Minerva, as I believe she is busy at Hogwarts until the arranged time. Looking forward to __**finally **__seeing you all again!_

_Firepaw._

Harry smirked and sent the note, before turning into his snow leopard form and leaping up to sit on the desk. Once Minerva had gotten over the shock of seeing a snow leopard in Harry's office, he transformed back, and they spent a while discussing transfiguration and other matters like what had happened at Hogwarts over the last year.

After Minerva ha left his office, Harry opened the door to his living quarters and wrinkled his nose. They smelt musty, were almost completely _pink, _and a lot of the furniture had been knocked over. Harry quickly covered the place in freshening charms to get rid of the smell before going through each room separately.

Harry started with the bedroom, as it was the closest room to the door and he could do it in a heartbeat. Harry quickly cast all of his usual charms and the additional ones from Trixy to make it look like a forest. The only thing that was missing was the door to an ensuite, as that was not provided in the Hogwarts living quarters. He had even carved another bed in preparation for coming to live at Hogwarts.

The bathroom was next, and required very little work. A few _reparos _and a colour-changing charm were all required, but the room was already up to his standards in everything else. Apparently teachers were given similar luxuries to the prefects.

The kitchen, however, was atrocious.

"Trixy!" with a small _pop,_ the head house elf was in the room.

"Trixy, this is going to be my new kitchen whilst I am staying at Hogwarts. I want you and the rest of the elves to stay and work at Potters Cliff unless I call you, but at the moment, this kitchen needs a lot of work. Can you please fix it up for me? Leave it the size it is, but all of the furniture and appliances need to be replaced. Get the best of everything, please. Thanks, Trixy!" With the house elf now taking care of the kitchen, Harry went to work on the next room in line. 

The dining room was once again simple. A few _reparos _were necessary once again, as was the colour-changing charm that was needed in every room. He used slight, permanent transfigurations to improve the quality of the furniture and get rid of the nicks that Tonks had created in them before declaring the room satisfactory. He then headed back to the living room, and frowned.

The living room was also the 'entrance hall' of the living quarters. It was a large, round room with several doors on the walls for the rest of the rooms. It was also one of the worst rooms at the moment. Harry called for Dobby and asked his to duplicate all of the furniture in the Gryffindor common room, and bring back the new things. Whilst Dobby was busy getting the furniture, Harry got the room ready. He vanished all of the original furniture in the room. Harry then flicked his wand and the room was suddenly red and gold instead of pink. A _scourgify _and _incendio _got the fireplace up and running, and a few more charms had it connected to the Hogwarts and Potter's Cliff floo. The carpet was hit with another _scourgify _and colour changing charm.

While Harry was waiting for Dobby to return, he went to check on Trixy's work, and gasped. The room was now painted in forest greens and browns, and the benches had been carved from quality wood. The appliances were all top quality as he had requested, and all of the surfaces were gleaming. It was beautiful.

"Trixy- it's beautiful- thank you!" Harry marvelled at the elves work, before sending her to get copies of the portraits that were hanging at Potter's Cliff, and went back into the living room and forgot, for a second, that it was his.

Dobby had created an almost exact replica of the Gryffindor common room- apart from the missing portraits and the fact it was less than half the size- it was identical. Harry smiled. Minerva would like the room.

Harry then decided that he would ask Hogwarts for another room. He thought about a potions lab, but decided that he could always use Snape's. Harry finally decided on making a crafting room where he could continue his hobby.

'_Hogwarts?'_

"_Yes, Professor?'_

'_Can you please add another room to my quarters? Keep it empty, though.'_

'_of course!' _a door materialised between the bedroom and dining room doors.

'_Thanks. And… Hogwarts?'_

'_Yes?'_

'_Why do you talk with me and not the other Professors?'_

'_I try to speak with all of the staff here- but you are the only one that holds the skills to hear me- thanks to your training, and the fact that you are a descendant.'_

'_Oh. Well… thanks for the room!'_ Harry cut the conversation before opening the door and setting to work. He quickly placed the enchantments he used in his bedrooms as he wanted to create the effect that he was back during his year 'on the run' at Merlins Castle. He quickly decided against conjuring anything, as he preferred to craft the items and conjured items were noticeably weaker. He carved a workbench from one of the tree trunks he had stored in his trunk . He placed a cauldron on top of a fire-resistant tree stump and a trunk full of ingredients under _stasis_ in the corner of the room before he arranged his tools on the workbench and began to craft more weapons, as he couldn't have all of them in his office.

Harry was still crafting when Minerva came to pick him up, and only noticed her presence when she gasped. Cursing himself for not noticing she was there earlier- and for not placing detection wards on the quarters- Harry morphed into his Harold Emmeris disguise before giving her a tour of his quarters. Needless to say, she was thoroughly impressed.

At 5 to 7, Harry took Minerva's hand and used elvin teleportation to bypass the wards around the castle and they walked to Scrivenshafts to wait for the rest of the party. They didn't have to wait long. Almost as soon as they arrived, there was four _pops _and Kingsley, Tonks, Remus and Moody were surrounding them. Harry smirked. This was going to be fun.

"Hi everyone!" he said cheerfully, before grinning and waving at them all. There was a pause. Then-

"Ennervate. Ennervate. Ennervate. Ennervate." Minerva and Harry smirked at each other. The four of them soon sat up and Harry pretended to sigh.

"Hi everyone! Let's try this again… My name is Harry Potter, and I am currently in disguise as the 17 year old Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Harold Emmeris."

"Harry!" cried Remus, whose eyes were suspiciously wet.

"I missed you guys!" By 8 o'clock, Harry decided that they had gotten over the shock of finding out Harry's disguise and smirked inwardly, wondering what their reaction to his next revelation would be.

"Oh- by the way, Remus, while I was away, I discovered a cure to lycanthropy!" he said cheerfully.

"Ennervate. Ennervate. Ennervate. Ennervate. Ennervate." Once they had sat up, Harry continued.

"C'mon, guys, you've got to stop fainting on me. Moody! How're you supposed to practice constant vigilance if you're unconscious on the ground?" They others snickered. Then Remus finally spoke.

"You- you- you- you WHAT?"

"Here," and Harry pulled a vial of the potion out of his belt. "One vial of this, and you never have to transform again! Although, for some reason, your animagus form will be a giant wolf. Still, it's better than going through the transformation, and you get to keep your mind fully if you do the animagus transformation. Actually, Salazar found the cure, but he could hardly claim it as his own so he gave it to me as a birthday present." It took a while for the shock to wear off that time.

The next day was September First, and Harry decided to spend the last student-free day in the potions lab, enjoying the peace it provided. Snape had quickly found him- apparently he had had the same idea. He soon asked what Harry was brewing as he didn't recognise it.

"Oh-this- well, I haven't named it yet, but it's a cure to lycanthropy!" said Harry cheerfully. Snape swayed alarmingly. One he recovered himself, Snape said;

"Here. I got your Healer qualifications and the certificate."

"YES! Thanks! Now I can't be dragged off to see Poppy every time I get injured or sick!" he said gleefully, and slipped the certificate into his potions belt. Snape saw it and quickly locked and bolted the door, threatening to keep Harry hostage until he promised to craft one similar for Snape. Harry agreed and continued to create a large stock of what he finally decided to call Wolfscure. Uncreative, but it got the message across. He knew he would need many large batches of the potion before he could present it to the public. The rest of the day was spent brewing and crafting a potions belt for Snape which was finished in record time- Harry gave it to the man at lunchtime.

On the Hogwarts express, many people were discussing what the new DADA professor would be like.

"… He'll be old and wrinkly and hate all the Slytherins in detention all the time," said Ron.

"or she," sniffed Hermione. "I think _she _will be like Tonks- not much theory or reading, just basic practical things that she demonstrates before getting the class to do it one by one, very boring and not much use."

"Why'd _he _ask for books on duelling etiquette then?" snapped Ron.

"No.. I think you're both wrong. I think he'll be young and fit and teach us with the same methods as Harry had with the DA. That was really good!" said Neville enthusiastically. "Gran had Madam Marchbanks 'round for tea last Saturday, and she knows him. She said he'll probably be the most interesting Professor we've had for DADA!"

"What did she say?" asked Hermione quickly.

"Just that he's young, and really knows his stuff… she said she's never seen anyone that can duel like his, as well."

"I don't care how much stuff he knows, as long as he gives Malfoy enough detentions," grumbled Ron.

"Ron! Don't say that!" gasped Susan.

"Who asked for your opinion?" sneered Ron. Neville and Susan gaped at him.

"C'mon, Susan, let's find another compartment."

"Ron! Now you've done it- we're ever going to get anywhere near his study notes when you treat his friend like that!" snapped Hermione frustratedly.

"But he was hanging around with _Susan! _We don't want _her_ around!"

"Ron!" Hermione huffed.

"The DADA Professor had better not be another auror… they're all nutters," Ron grumbled, abandoning the previous argument. Hermione huffed again, and ignored him for the rest of the trip.

They got to Hogwarts without incident. As soon as Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table, Hermione scanned the table and gasped.

"What?" snapped Ron, still annoyed about his treatment on the Hogwarts Express.

"_Harold Emmeris,_" she breathed.

"So?" Ron snapped.

"Ron, it's _Harold Emmeris!_ He is _our age! _He shares the same birthday as Potter- he's the youngest person ever to obtain a Mastery in a subject! He was born after us! When Longbottom said the new Professor knew his stuff, I didn't expect _him_!" Some of the people around them heard, and soon a whisper of '_Harold Emmeris'_ swept through the hall.

Up at the staff table, Harry heard his fake name and groaned. Snape smirked.

"It's your own fault," the man pointed out, "You're the one that decided you needed to get _twelve _Masteries at once… when you were 17!"

"It wasn't supposed to go in the _Prophet, _though!"

"Did you expect anything else?"

"No, but…" The argument continued, with Minerva quickly joining Snape's side. When they finally fell silent, Dumbledore was already addressing the students.

"…staffing news, Professor Tonks, as you all know- resigned at the end of last year. I am delighted to announce, that the position will indeed be filled by none other, than Professor Harold Emmeris!" Harry grinned cheekily and waved at the student body. Snape elbowed him in the ribs. Hard.

'show off," Snape growled.

"What? I want to be approachable!" and then in an undertone, he added; "Then scare them shitless when they are in detention with me. There's a reason I have weapons in my office… and the fact they will all be getting a demonstration on how well I wield them… probably won't work as well as potions ingredients, but it'll have to do…" Snape smirked. Minerva, who hadn't heard the last part, said;

"That's a good idea, Harold! Students are usually too afraid to approach their subject teacher, worried that it will be brought up in class, no doubt. You remind me of when Harry Potter ran an illegal Defence class here. The students all went to him when they had a problem," said Minerva, winking at him.

"Potter ran a Defence class? Was he any good?" Harry asked, hoping he sounded innocently curious.

"Much as I loathe to admit it, Potter was a good teacher… the Slytherins never reported favouritism, either," grumbled Snape. Harry grinned, and Minerva stared, gobsmacked. Apparently Dumbledore had heard the exchange as he was looking at Snape proudly.

The next day was Sunday, and nothing particularly interesting happened except for the arrival of the teacher's schedules. Harry's was packed.

_**Teacher: **__Professor Harold James Emmeris_

_**Subject: **__Defence Against the Dark Arts_

_**Main Classroom: **__Gryff. Tower, room 12G.78_

_**Extra classrooms: **__Gryff. Tower, room 12G.79_

_**Day: **__Monday_

_**Classes:**_

_**9.00 **__7__th__ year DADA_

_**10.00**__ 7__th__ year DADA_

_**12.00 **__6__th__ year DADA_

_**3.00 **__3__rd__ year DADA Huff/Raven_

_**4.00 **__4__th__ year DADA Huff/Raven_

_**Day: **__Tuesday_

_**Classes:**_

_**9.00 **__5__th__ year DADA Huff/Raven_

_**10.00 **__3__rd__ year DADA Gryff/Slyth_

_**12.00 **__2__nd__ year DADA Huff/Raven_

_**2.00 **__3__rd__ year DADA Huff/Raven_

_**4.00 **__2__nd__ year DADA Gryff/Slyth_

_**Day: **__Wednesday_

_**Classes:**_

_**9.00**__ 5__th__ year DADA Gryff/Slyth_

_**10.00 **__5__th__ year DADA Huff/Raven_

_**12.00 **__7__th__ year DADA_

_**2.00 **__1__st__ year DADA Gryff/Slyth_

_**4.00 **__4__th__ year DADA Gryff/Slyth_

_**Day: **__Thursday_

_**Classes:**_

_**10.00 **__5__th__ year DADA Gryff/Slyth_

_**12.00 **__1__st__ year POTIONS Huff/Raven_

_**2.00 **__1__st__ year POTIONS Gryff/Raven_

_**Day: **__Friday_

_**Classes:**_

_**9.00 **__6__th__ DADA _

_**10.00 **__6__th__ DADA_

_**12.00 **__4__th__ DADA Gryff/Slyth_

_**3.00 **__4__th__ DADA Huff/Raven_

"Hey, Severus? Looks like Dumbledore has fixed the problem of me helping you for us."

"Really? When?"

"Periods 3 and 5 on Thursdays. They're both 1st year classes."

"Oh, good. First years are going to like this."

On Monday, classes began; and Harry's first class was a double period with the 7th years. Harry groaned when he saw it. He was sure it was first on purpose- it was the final test of his skills.

At 9 o'clock, he let the class in, noticing as he did so that Ron and Hermione were not there. He groaned. This was quite obviously going to be difficult.

"Hi everyone! I'm Professor Emmeris. First thing I want you all to realise is that you're all adults, so I'm going to treat you like one until you give me a reason to treat you like a child. Yes, I'm the same age as you all- actually, I think I may be the youngest in the room at the moment! But I do know what I am talking about, and that doesn't just go for DADA, so if you're having problems in any subject, feel free to come and talk to me! Now, I want to get to know you all, so I think I'll start with the register." Harry wandlessly summoned the register, looking as casual as he could to prove that he did 'know his stuff,' as he had heard being thrown around in the corridors. Harry quickly reached the names he had been dreading.

"Granger, Hermione," as he already knew, she was not in the room.

"Hermione? Ms. Granger? Does anyone know where Hermione is?"

"I heard her saying that she was going to 'test you,'" said Neville nervously. Harry sighed. Hermione had really gone downhill after his disappearance.

"Thanks, Neville." The same thing happened when he got to Ron's name. Once he was done, he said;

"Now I want to start a conversation- I want to know everything that you've been taught in DADA. Professor Dumbledore gave me a basic list, but he won't know anything and I want to hear it from you. Also, if anyone was in a group called _'Dumbledore's Army,'_ feel free to add anything you learnt there to the list."

Half an hour later, there was a reasonably sized list on the (wandlessly) conjured chalkboard. The class then spent the rest of the lesson copying down the lesson plan for the remainder of the year. When the bell rang, the class walked excitedly to the door of the duelling classroom and filed in, before sitting down in the beanbags and looking around appreciatively.

"Alright! This is the duelling classroom, which we will be in once a week for practical lessons. The duelling platform is heavily warded, but if _anyone _mucks around with it or anywhere else in this room, they will be up on the platform facing me." Harry let his aura flare to show his power. The class shivered involuntarily ad he let it die down before continuing.

"If facing me does not stop you from mucking around, you will be suspended from practical lessons, and you will spend them copying _The Ultimate Book on Duelling Rules and Etiquette-_ which is the largest book I own." The class shivered again. They had seen some thick books in his classroom.

"Now that's done! Although this is probably one of the most dangerous classes you will take at Hogwarts, it is also supposed to be _fun! _I also believe that it would be beneficial for you all to watch a proper duel. So, I will have a discussion with Albus- you didn't just hear me call him that-" The class chuckled, and Harry continued- "and see what I can do. Now. I have placed cushioning charm over the walls and floor so that any flying as a result of a collision with a spell won't hurt as much. There isn't enough time left today to learn anything new and I have heard rumours about certain 7th years shield charms- although I believe neither of those people are in the room- I want you all to pair up. You will take turns. One person will cast a stunner, and the other will have to raise a shield charm in time. Don't give them a warning before you cast the charm, I want them to shield one they see the spell heading towards them. Stunners and shields only! GO!"

Harry spent the rest of the lesson working on pronunciation and wand movements. The general performance was already excellent, but there was still little improvements to be made. When the bell rang, Harry kept Neville back.

"Hi, Neville! You do an excellent shield charm, one of the best in the class."

"Thanks!" said Neville happily.

"would I be right in assuming that you sometimes spend time around Ron and Hermione?"

"Yes…"

"Could you please tell them to be at Professor Snape's potions lab at 7pm tomorrow?"

"Okay…"

"Thanks! That's all I had to say."

"Okay, sir, bye!" said Neville, who promptly sprinted out the door. _Hmmm… guess I scared him a little. _Then he smirked. Snape was going to murder him! First class and he already had his most hated students in detention with him!

_Severus-_

_I'm sending a lovely pair of 7__th__ year Gryffindors to your lab, 7pm tomorrow. The pair of them had decided that DADA wasn't worth their time and had planned on 'testing me.' I believe a large stack of cauldrons went all summer without being cleaned? (Actually, there's a pile that went a few years in the storage cupboard on the shelf above the Half Blood Prince's textbook. They were the ones that I failed to clean for my Master, and any magic that hits them will make them even worse, if you want to use them!) If you can't deal with them, I have heard rumours about how well they get on with Filch, who is extremely cheerful at the moment. I believe a certain poltergeist found it amusing to wreak his office. _

_Thanks,_

_Harold._

_P.S. I believe they need to be 'blamed' for a prank by their fellow classmates. They are far too arrogant._

Harry found it extremely amusing when Hogwarts told him that Snape had a childish temper tantrum after a golden phoenix delivered a note to him.

The rest of the week went smoothly for Harry. His exercise regime brought a lot of spectators, particularly the older female students. The students had also begun to see him as a friend as well as their teacher and were beginning to open up to him. Ron and Hermione were apparently furious at the detention he had given them, but they had turned up for the DADA class later in the week and not tried anything.

Finally, it was Sunday, the day he had been waiting for. Dumbledore had agreed to assist him with a duelling performance in front of the entire school so that they would benefit from watching it. Apparently someone had started a betting pool and no one thought he would be able to beat Dumbledore. Harry smirked when he heard that. This was going to be _fun._

"Rules?"

"No Dark curses."

"Agreed."

"Ready, Dumbledore? Emmeris?"

"Ready."

"Ready!"  
"3. 2. 1. Begin."

Harry quickly sent a huge gust of wind at Dumbledore who was blown back a few feet before he managed to jump out of the way of the wind and send back a retaliatory jet of water. Harry quickly copied, and huge amounts of water crashed in mid-air, making the platform saturated. Harry quickly sent a drying spell at his end of the platform before beginning to shoot curses at the older man.

"Langlock!" cried Harry but Dumbledore raised his shield in time.

"Expelliarmus! Stupefy! Petrificus Totalus! Conjunctivus! Diffindo! Wingardium Leviosa! Trinus Super! Silere Omnino!" Harry stayed on the offensive, but Dumbledore's shield stayed strong for longer than he expected, and only had to dodge the last silencing spell. Harry quickly decided that he wanted to cast stronger spells, so he summoned his staff. Dumbledore's eyes widened, and he dropped his shield. It would be useless against a staff. only the strongest people could even craft one, and Dumbledore himself was not among those people. Harry remained on the offensive, shooting volleys of jinxes and curses at Dumbledore, watching him dodge with a huge grin on his face. He had been right when he assumed he would enjoy this duel. After a while, Harry could see that Dumbledore was prepared to lose in order to keep his dignity, as he was tiring quickly. Harry then had an idea. He shot the brightest patronus he could at the man and whilst he was blinded, Harry disillusioned himself and crept around behind the man. Harry then sent a wordless stunner at the man, and watched him fall before turning visible again, and turned to the students who were gaping at him.

"That was just a fun duel to show you what it looks like. In a real duel, I wouldn't have taken as many risks. Many of the moves I made were beyond stupid and could have very easily gotten me killed in a real duel. That said, everyone in 4th year and above, I want 2 rolls of parchment on duelling etiquette for your next practical class, ad younger students you can do that for extra credit if you like. Chocolate frog to the best essay in each class. Thanks!" said Harry cheerfully. The staff members gaped at him. Harry waited for all the students to leave the hall before he walked over to Dumbledore.

"Ennervate." Dumbledore sat up.

"Have you ever met Voldemort?" was the first thing Dumbledore said.

"If you are hinting about the prophecy, yes, it means me. Next question!"

"How do you-"

"Know? I know lots of things. Anyway, thanks for the duel, it was fun!" said Harry cheerfully.

"Fun? You steamrollered me, and now you stand there like it was a walk in the park!"

"Yeah, well my tutor was a _lot _stronger than you and he made me duel him with a blindfold on, so…"

"Have you ever heard of the Order of the Phoenix?"

"Who hasn't?"

"Have you ever thought about joining it?"

"Well… sometimes…"

"Next meeting's at 7pm tomorrow night, my office."

"Um… thanks!"

Dumbledore walked away, thinking about that conversation with Harold Emmeris. It was scary. How did he know of the prophecy? Only he, Snape and Voldemort knew it, and he had not told him. But who had? Snape? He didn't think so. But that only left Voldemort, and he was not likely to tell anyone outside of his inner circle if he told anyone at all. But Snape knew the entire inner circle, and Harold Emmeris was not one of them. Did he have his own spy? That was not likely either. So how… Dumbledore shook his head. Inducing him into the Order was a good idea. Moody was always the first to know if someone was trustworthy or not, and Fawkes always checked them before they were allowed to be at the meeting. Phoenixes were known for being Light and could tell whether a person was light or dark as well. He knew that Harold had a phoenix, but he also knew that there were several Dark rituals that could force the phoenix to do his will. And that boy had defeated him in a duel as easily as if he himself had been an annoying fly bussing around his ear. _How? _He knew he didn't want to face him in a real duel, as the boy had quite obviously toyed with him for a long time and taken really obvious risks. Dumbledore shivered. The boy definitely had the _power to defeat the Dark Lord. _Voldemort would mark him as his equal- once he heard about the duel he would be terrified of Harold. But _what _was the _power he knows not? _His staff? Not likely, he had just revealed it to the whole school. So _what_ was it! Dumbledore frowned. He didn't like not being able to solve a problem, but he knew he would have to keep a closer eye on Harold Emmeris. He was glad some of the students had agreed to spy on him, but now he would need a staff member as well. _Who? _Severus would not do it, he knew. Minerva? That might work. He could express his wishes, hinting to her that he thought the boy was Dark. The two of them didn't know each other all that well. They made small talk at meals, but he didn't think it went beyond that- so it would be easy to spin a few lies about him…

Dumbledore decided that he would need to warn the Order members that Harold Emmeris would be joining their ranks… but he wouldn't say anything about him. Snape would be first to know…

Later that night, Harry was brewing in his crafting room when Snape came in and looked around appreciatively.

"Who did this? It's incredible!"

"What, the enchantments? I did. When I was an apprentice, I had to spend a year living rough, on the run from my Masters. I enjoyed crafting and brewing in the forest so much that I create a rom like this wherever I live now."

"It's amazing. On the run from your Masters? No, I don't think I want to know. Would you do something similar for my classroom? It might help the students relax a little and that would improve the quality of brewing."

"Sure! Just mention that I did it!" said Harry cheekily.

"The real reason I came up here is… well I heard that you're being accepted into the Order."

"Yep."

"Well, just so you know, I'm…"

"A spy? I know." Snape shifted awkwardly.

"How do you… never mind. Also, there are some in the Order that don't trust the new members. Moody-"

"Hey, I've already met Mad-Eye, we're cool! That man has a sense of humour." Snape gaped.

"Oh. Well in that case…"

"Let's go down to your classroom and see what I can do. You know, if you just dropped your 'I'm a scary Death Eater' act, I wouldn't have to do this…"

Half an hour later, the Potions Lab was unrecognisable. The walls, floor and ceiling were reflecting a small clearing in a forest- Harry's speciality. The desks had become tree stumps (fire resistant everywhere except for the tops) placed at random intervals around the room with cauldrons perched on them. The teacher's desk was replaced with an actual small but thick tree with a space carved out of it for Snape to work on. The teacher's chair was also carved out of a tree stump. Harry was just adding the finishing touches when Dumbledore walked in.

"Severus, I… Harold?"

"Yes, Albus?"

"Does Severus know what you're doing?" Harry smirked.

"Yes, he saw my crafting room earlier. He liked it so much that he asked me to do 'something similar' to his classroom to help the students relax."

"Oh. So you put them in a forest… wait- your crafting room?" Harry ignored Dumbledore's question.

"Severus is in his office if you need him, as I didn't want him to witness the transformation. Well, I'd better go now; you can show it to him…"

The next morning, all the staff could talk about was how Harold had 'fixed' Snape's classroom.

"How did you do it? The rest of the staff have been trying for years, but no one has managed it yet!" whispered Minerva. Harry just smirked.

Somehow, the information had leaked to the students and Harry was badgered by students all wanting to know what he had done to the classroom. He just told them to wait and see.

Harry very quickly became the student's favourite professor.


	5. The Duels

_**The Duels**_

Harry was slowly getting used to being both a Professor and a member of the Order, which under normal circumstances; he would not be permitted to be either for at least another year. Meanwhile, the Death Eaters had lifted the frequency and severity of their attacks and Harry was on minimal sleep as he was constantly called to fight against them. When the mood at Hogwarts reached an all-time low and even the first years were behaving like adults, Harry snapped. He decided that Hogwarts needed a morale-booster, although he refused to call it that, remembering Lockhart. Soon after, every time the Death Eaters performed a publicised attack, the entire school was pranked. No one suspected Harry except for Snape- who, to Harry's utter disbelief, joined in on the pranking after hearing Harry's motives.

It was a week until the mid-year exams, and Harry was exhausted. He had just come back from a Death Eater attack and this time it had been on Diagon Alley. The alley was a mess. They had hit at 4pm in the afternoon, when the alley was at its most busy. They had hundreds of dementors sweeping through the alley and terrorised anyone they could. When the Order finally arrived on the scene, the Death Eaters were slowly driven back but there was a huge amount of injury, and Harry was the only one that seemed to be able to do any real damage to Voldemort's followers as Dumbledore had not joined in on the fight. What Harry didn't realise, was that Dumbledore _had _in fact been there, spying on Harry to make sure he was pulling his weight and not joining forces with the people wearing black and silver masks. The old man was pleased with Harry's conduct during the battle.

When Harry returned to Hogwarts, he wanted nothing more than to collapse on his bed and sleep but he knew that this was going to be _heavily _publicised and warranted a large prank. He decided that he would have to prank the students rather than the teachers, as was customary. The students seemed to find amusement in seeing their all-powerful headmaster stuck to the ceiling wearing bright pink robes. He wasn't going to tell Snape about this prank, but set to work quickly, and after an hour fell asleep with a large smile on his face.

Over the next few days, the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were pranked several times daily. No one was quite sure who the culprit was except for the man himself who was very pleased with himself and Snape who had a very firm hunch. The pranks did have the desired effect as the students were so concentrated on being on the lookout for pranks that no one was brooding over the Diagon Alley attack.

In no time at all, it was Harry's first real test as a teacher- the mid-year exams. Harry thought that the majority of his students were doing really well, despite the disrupted teaching methods they had been exposed to and there were only a few students he was really worried about.

It was nearing the end of Harry's final exam- 7th year DADA. This was the exam he had been most nervous about. The students all respected him as their teacher- except for Ron- but he was dreading marking the exams as he was almost certain that the people he had once called his friends had failed. Indeed- as he looked over at the pair of them, Hermione was scowling at the test paper, and Ron had a frown on his face, staring at the paper- but neither his quill nor his eyes moved in over 10 minutes. Harry sighed. He _really _was not going to enjoy this.

"5 minutes remaining, everyone," he called, looking at the clock he had hung on the back wall for the exam period. Harry sat for the next 5 minutes thinking about how much his ex-friends had changed.

"Quills down now, everyone. You as well, Ms. Granger. Thank you. Accio parchment!" Harry quickly decided that he needed to get the 7th years over and done with, so he spent the remainder of the day marking those exams. He was disappointed when he saw that Ron and Hermione had indeed failed. He was talking to Minerva at diner when he remembered and brought it up with her.

"Ron and Hermione have changed so much," he whispered, "They both failed my exam and don't pay any attention in class. If the old Hermione saw herself… what happened to them?"

"You," replied Minerva, "They both tried hard to beat you at everything. Mr. Weasley wanted to prove that he could be as good as the famous _boy-who-lived_. When you left they lost focus. The teachers had to be bribed into letting them into 7th year," she said crossly. Harry was annoyed.

"Why? Surely they would be better off in 6th year, instead of falling behind their classmates. They're a joke to the people in the classroom! Repeating a year would be good for both of their overly inflated egos, too."

"They didn't spy for free, you know. One of the privileges they received was passing grades," she said. It was only then when they realised that Flitwick had overheard part of their conversation, and Harry knew he was going to have to explain everything to the Ravenclaw Head before he brought the conversation to the attention of Dumbledore.

"Filius, can I speak to you later, please?" he asked nervously.

"Of course, Harold. Your office, mine's a mess!" he squeaked. Harry was relieved, as he showed no signs of having connected the dots between Harold Emmeris and Harry Potter, but he knew it was only a matter of time.

After dinner, Harry took Flitwick up to his quarters and gave him the full tour, which impressed the man no end due to the high level charm work that went into some of the rooms, especially the crafting room. Once the tour was over, Harry explained the situation to him, and Flitwick was stunned that 'Professor Emmeris, Master of Every Subject and the man-who-defeated-Dumbledore-in-a-duel' was actually 17 year old Harry Potter, boy-who-lived and presumed deceased man. However, when Flitwick left his quarters hours later, Harry was confident that his secret was safe for the time being.

Before he went to bed that night, Harry thought over the wards he was going to place with Minerva the next day.

It took the two teachers almost a week to finish upgrading the wards on the castle, but with Flitwick's help, they deemed the place near impenetrable. They were glad that both Flitwick and Harry were wards masters as they wouldn't feel half as safe at night if they hadn't had that level of skill going into the new wards. Indeed, many people slept more soundly after the upgrades as the Death Eaters had once again lifted their attacks. The Order was constantly in battle and all of the members were exhausted. Harry had resorted to using the time charm on his bedroom to get extra hours of sleep but he couldn't do the same thing for the others as it was imperative that it stayed secret- the damage someone could do with it was unthinkable.

The attacks were becoming so frequent that Harry's ranks were going off constantly. The benefits of this was the students were always on edge looking around for the elusive prankster that they were becoming extremely alert and spotted almost everything around them. Harry was pleased- the Death Eaters would have their work cut out trying to sneak up on any of them! He made sure to prank himself frequently and left one person from each house un-pranked- except for when he did whole-house pranks, where he made sure to go easy on them. Those 4 students were the main suspects so the rest of the school pranked them frequently and the result was the largest prank-war ever at Hogwarts. (Harry confirmed that with the castle. The only prank war that ever got close was the one in 997-998 Gryffindor and Hufflepuff against Ravenclaw and Slytherin)

Harry also changed the content of his classes. Information was thrown at the students, trying to give them as much information as possible. They focused mainly on spells and curses that would help them in unfair fight and duels as well as different ways to avoid detection and ways to escape unnoticed. This also increased the success of pranks, to Harry's delight. Harry also took several students a week for extra lessons in potions where they brewed basic antidotes and healing potions that the majority of the students carried everywhere and Harry began to make potions belts for those students. Harry was often approached by students for extra lessons in classes they believed they weren't doing as well in, as well as a more battle-focused approach to a subject. (For example transfiguration in battle) Hogwarts was becoming an army.

"Ron," said Hermione nervously, "I know you don't like lessons, but… do you think we should ask Professor Emmeris for some private lessons? It's just… we're failing EVERY subject. We have NEWTs at the end of the year. But the main reason is the Death Eaters will try and take us 'cause we hung around Potter when he was here. With his saving-people thing, they will expect him to come out of hiding when he hears that his best friends have been taken hostage. He gives plenty of students' private lessons, and maybe it's time to put some more effort in…" she was chewing on her lip nervously.

"Are you serious? More lessons? Besides, what could _he _teach us? He's younger than us!" he exploded.

"I…oh… you're right, of course…" but Hermione didn't look like she agreed with Ron. It was then that the girl spotted a note in front of her and picked it up.

_Ron and Hermione-_

_I am arranging for the two of you to have extra Defence lessons with Professor Emmeris. He is very good at his subject- you may remember him defeating me in a duel. You both need to be able to protect yourselves now more than ever as I believe the two of you will be a large target for many Death Eaters. Be at my office at 9am on Saturday to discuss this thoroughly with both Prof. Emmeris and myself. I must stress this point; do __**not **__do anything to anger the man as he is already most displeased with you both._

_Good luck, _

_Albus Dumbledore._

"Target for Death Eaters," groaned Ron, "Oh… well… alright, I s'posse we'd better see Dumbledore. But _extra _lessons with a teacher younger than us? I mean, c'mon! Maybe it's a disguise… WE have to teach HIM… yeah… that makes more sense."

"Thank you, Ron, this will really help us," said Hermione delicately. Ron merely grunted ant the subject was dropped until Saturday.

While Ron and Hermione were discussing the extra lessons, Dumbledore approached Harry.

"Harold, my boy! I have some students that I feel would benefit from some extra Defence lessons, and I am asking you to instruct them."

"Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, I believe they are Death Eater targets due to their old friendship with Potter…"

"You mean; Ron and Hermione because you once thought about getting them to spy on Neville for you as he fits a portion of the prophecy," said Harry sharply. "Headmaster, I know the prophecy. The _whole _prophecy. I do not believe that Potter is dead; it's his destiny to defeat Voldemort. Stop trying to fit everyone in around the prophecy! You made a mistake with Harry, training his spies rather than him. Do not let Neville suffer his fate without any reason. Even if Harry is gone, Voldemort has already marked me as his equal also. I fit the mould too. I also know that _Harry managed to hold the prophecy. _Let Neville be a normal kid! However, I will take Weasley and Granger for extra tuition. Heaven knows they need it.

"How do you know the prophecy?"

"Harry's a great person… we trained together for a bit."

The next day, Dumbledore was thinking over Harry's words.

_They trained together… Emmeris believes that Potter's still alive. There's something that he's not telling me, I just wish I knew __**what! **__If they trained together… Potter is dangerous. I'll have to check at Gringotts, they always know if a person is alive or not. Can't believe I didn't think of this earlier! If he's alive, Harold has an alarmingly good argument for Potter being the Chosen One. Longbottom was never marked… or maybe Harold is the one? He's right; he certainly is more likely than Longbottom. I need to think about this… none of them are turning into my ideal weapon! Hmmm…_

Half an hour later, a thoroughly confused Dumbledore exited Gringotts. Yes, Potter was alive, yes, he was making regular withdrawals, yes, he was living in Scotland, yes, he had a job, and no; he wasn't in hiding. The goblins actually looked amused- _amused! _When he complained about being unable to find the boy. They obviously knew where he was and by their reactions, he was close by. _Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight… But __**where**__?_

Harry was snickering. He had just been to Gringotts, and the goblins had told him of Dumbledore's meeting to the amusement of everyone in the room. At least it would keep him off Neville's back. And speaking of Neville…

"Sorry I'm late, Albus, I had a meeting with the goblins."

"Don't worry, Harold, and take a seat, Weasley and Granger will be here in a moment. Lemon Drop?"

"No thank you, Albus, I don't need a calming drought." They both sat in silence, each remembering their latest encounter with the goblins- Harry with a small smirk on his face and Dumbledore looking thoroughly annoyed and confused, when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" called Dumbledore jovially.

"Good Morning, Professor Dumbledore," said Hermione sweetly. Ron just grunted.

"Good Morning, Ron, Hermione!" said Dumbledore cheerfully, while Harry said in a cool voice;

"Weasley, Granger."

"Emmeris," sneered Ron. Harry ignored him.

"I have been… requested to take the two of you for extra tuition in the subject of Defence Against the Dark Arts. I will warn you now; I have accepted, but I will _not _go easy on you. Starting next term, you will be in my duelling classroom at 5pm every Friday night. You will not be late, and you will be dressed in comfortable clothing that does not restrict movement. Any other subject you want tuition for will be scheduled for a different time. If you slack off, you will not be permitted in my classroom again. Do not let this be a mistake to teach you. If you do not manage to improve on the Troll both of you earned in the mid-year exams, I will be most… displeased." Ron sneered at him.

"What could _you _teach _us?_ We're older than you, and Hermione's the best in our year," he said smugly.

"Really?" Harry asked coolly, and Ron nodded.

"Your grades tell a different story, as do the discussions I have had with your teachers. Do not test me, Weasley. You have proven yourself unworthy of my respect and form now on you will address me as _Master _or _sir_. If you earn a detention… from _any _teacher, you will serve it duelling me," said Harry shortly, as Ron was really getting on his nerves. He was behaving worse than Malfoy! 10 minutes later, Harry was allowed to leave and he sighed in relief. Ron and Hermione had been asked to stay, and Harry had no doubt as to what they were discussing. Harry went to each of Ron's teachers and told them what Ron would be doing if he ever earned a detention from any of them. They were all little too pleased when he told them. Ron was clearly not very popular amongst the staff.

The next morning was Sunday and Harry was so preoccupied with the lessons he would be giving his ex-friends next term that he forgot to put his Harold Emmeris disguise on when he went for his morning run. Thankfully, only Sprout was on the grounds.

"Harry Potter?" she asked incredulously.

"Professor Sprout! Please don't tell Dumbledore," he said, out of breath, and raising his disguise.

"Of course not! You're Harold? Who else knows?"

"Apart from you, Filius and Minerva are the only Professors, but Remus, Moody, Kingsley and Tonks all know as well. You spotted me without my disguise, I told Filius when I returned, Remus, Moody, Kingsley and Tonks I left a way for them to communicate with me while I was gone and they told Minerva halfway through last year."

A few days before the end of term, Harry was sitting in his office, silently conversing with Hogwarts, Merlin and the Founders when an alarm went off in his head. Hogsmeade was under attack! His teaching robes were quickly switched for his best duelling robes; weapons were added to his belt and holsters. His staff shrunk down and placed in his spare wand holster and he quickly drank down a Pepper Up and other strength and energising potions before using elvin teleportation to bypass the wards and get straight to Hogsmeade.

It was a massacre! There was over a hundred Death Eaters and the villagers were too frightened to attack them. Harry was the only Order member there. He sighed. _This is going to be one long, hard fight. Thank Merlin I remembered to drink those potions before I left!_ He sent all the elements rushing towards the Death Eaters before leaping into battle. He started picking off the Death Eaters, one by one, stunning and binding them together with an advanced stunner that only he could undo. By the time Voldemort's followers realised that he was the biggest- _and only- _threat, he had already taken out three quarters of their ranks. The remaining 30 or so closed in on him and the villagers stopped to watch. He was exhausted by now. 25 left… there was a tempting Pepper Up potion in his belt… 20… the potion would be nice about now… 15… a break would also be nice about now… 10… his quarters were more welcoming than ever before, now… 5… where was the Order, anyway?... 1… blood replenishing potion would be nice, too… 0… finally! Now for those potions… wait… Voldemort? Harry looked around. Over a hundred Death Eaters were stunned and bound in the centre of the village and the Order was yet to show up. The villagers were all cowering in their homes and shops and it was just him and Voldemort out on the street. He sighed again.

"Tom!" he cried, "Good to see you again! You know, you really need to pick your followers more carefully. Seriously? Over 100 of them couldn't even take out their only opponent. Tsk tsk, Tom, you're clearly a _terrible _teacher."

"Who are you?" sneered Voldemort, trying and failing to hide his shock.

"Tom! I'm shocked, how could you not remember me? You called me your _guest of honour _at your rebirth!" Harry mock-whined.

"Potter? You're dead, though," he said nervously.

"Clearly," Harry drawled. "Stupefy!" and the duel began.

The two of them traded spell and curses at an incredible pace, neither of them gaining the upper hand. Harry could tell that Voldemort, unused to long duels, was tiring quickly, but not quickly enough as Harry was beginning to feel light-headed from the blood loss. By now, there was a huge number of spectators- somehow, the villagers had got the message through, but Harry knew that he had to finish the duel now- or lose. He saw Voldemort cast another killing curse and Harry quickly conjured a solid shield and sent a stunner around it. He watched in slow-motion as his stunner collided with the green light- and reflected it back into its caser. Voldemort's eyes widened a fraction just before the curse hit him and he fell to the ground, dead. There was a moment's silence, before Harry yelled an _incendio. _The burnt body knocked everyone out of their shock and they all began to cheer. Harry sat down quickly and healed the worst injuries and downed a blood-replenishing and pepper up potions before the questions began. Apparently, in all the excitement, no one had noticed the large pile of bound bodies in the middle of the village. There was even reporters on the scene, and no one wanted to hear that Harry was tired or injured- they all had to thank him personally for defeating Voldemort. Finally, he managed to raise his voice just enough to be heard.

"Hey! I know it's exciting, but I'm exhausted! I've just duelled over 100 Death Eaters and then Voldemort. I need to rest, so can someone else please deal with them-" Harry waved his hand in the direction of the captured Death Eaters and the crowd gasped. Harry almost rolled his eyes. Really? What on _earth _had the villagers been doing? "…and I will answer questions at a later date! Thank you!" With that, Harry quickly teleported himself straight o his quarters and began to heal himself properly- as he had only managed 'on-the-battlefield' healing as Helga called it when he was in the village- it was not a substitute for proper healing, just a way to delay the time when you finally had to get your injuries healed properly. While he began the healing, he got the house elves to begin preparing him a large dinner. It took him a few hours, but finally he managed to reduce all of the cuts (apart from one which refused to heal) to almost invisible scars and the multiple bruises were almost gone. The skele-gro was doing its job, as was the blood replenishing, strengthening, energy, anti-scarring and all the other potions he had consumed. The meal the house elves had brought him was eaten in record time, despite the fact it was 3 times larger than normal. He was suffering from magical exhaustion, but that would only heal with sleep, so he activated the time charm in his bedroom before going to bed, asleep before his head hit the pillow. When Harry finally woke, he was glad he had activated the time charm- he had slept for over 36 hours! It was 7am outside and he was starving so he made his way to kitchen to make a huge breakfast. At 8 he got out of the shower and noticed that someone had visited whilst he was in there and left a note on the table.

_Harry-_

_Congratulations on your duel! You were incredible to watch- errr… I might have to explain that to you. You see, I have good and bad news for you. Good first- classes are cancelled for the rest of term! Somehow, I doubt you have the energy to teach- _Harry snickered. He was back to normal thanks to the time charm! _The bad news- there was muggle recording cameras in the village, so we're spending the day watching you duel the Death Eaters and Voldemort. Sorry! It's your fault, though. What were you thinking? Over a hundred DE? Single handed! You are going to get yourself killed one day, young man. I've asked everyone to leave you alone today, I think you need it. _

_Minerva._

_P.S. Alastor's here, and he's impressed! Congratulations! _

Harry groaned. Muggle recording cameras! He then noticed a letter from the Ministry on the table. He detected a portkey inside of it, so he quickly switched out of his bathrobe and into a formal robe before opening the letter.

_Master Harold Emmeris._

_We, at the Ministry, would like to commend you on your outstanding effort and bravery displayed at Hogsmeade Village last night. As such, we are going to upgrade your Order of Merlin (achieved after your effort and dedication you put into creating the Wolfscure potion) to a First class. This is a huge honour, and you will be transported to the Ministry at the conclusion of this letter to receive it. Thank you again, for your efforts,_

_Cornelius Fudge,_

_Minister for Magic_

Harry almost snarled. Now? It was a day after the battle! By rights he should still be exhausted! Before he could finish those thoughts, he felt a familiar jerk behind his navel and suddenly he was not in his quarters, but rather in an opulent office at the Ministry. Harry was glad he thought to change out of his bathrobes before opening the letter.

The ceremony was quick, but everyone wanted to speak to him afterwards. He grabbed his award and the sack of one million galleons the Ministry had decided to award him and teleported as quickly as he could to Gringotts where he deposited the gold and returned to Hogwarts. Harry spent the rest of the day in his crafting room, the familiar movements and space calming him down. It wasn't until 5 that he realised he had a staff meeting in two hours. He slowly put his things away and had dinner before sticking the latest certificate on his wall and making his way towards the staff room. Halfway there, he realised that he should have come under the invisibility cloak- he was feeling extremely claustrophobic with everyone crowding around him. He mentally called to Hogwarts for help and chuckled when the staircase he just stepped off changed immediately afterwards. The mob was stuck on the other side of the tower.

Harry finally made it to the staff room and began to complain to Minerva that her warning hadn't been sufficient- and began to explain the day's events to her. Snape joined her in placing all the blame on him. Harry huffed. They were being extremely unfair, in his opinion.

The meeting was incredible boring with nothing of interest mentioned until the end, when Harry stood up.

"I have a… small… confession to make... My name is not, nor has it ever been, Harold Emmeris. There was never a person with that name- My master invented it as a good disguise."

"WHAT?" all of the teachers that did not know of his masquerade cried, whilst they looked smug.

"I can see the other Heads of House already knew of this. Would you mind… enlightening us to your true identity?" Harry gulped, and instead of answering, he dropped his disguise before looking directly at Snape.

"Potter." Snape fainted, and the staff (minus Dumbledore) snickered.

After the staff meeting, Dumbledore quickly made his way up to his office in deep thought.

_Potter was in the Order. He knew all of my plans… all the manipulations- well, some of them, at any rate… When this gets out, he'll have all the influence! Tom was worse than Grindelwald, and Potter didn't hesitate, rather took him on at the earliest he could and was actively fighting for a year beforehand… Potter was the one that informed the world of his rebirth! I need to keep my titles safe, though… How? Discredit him… claim I did it? No, too many witnesses… and those cameras… Obliviate and destroy the evidence? No… it's too late, I'd miss someone… Claim he's Dark? Hmmm… maybe… Only works if he doesn't reveal himself… Duel? He's already beaten me… and Tom… but there's no other options! This plan has too many flaws in it! If he reveals himself, it's done for. Not to mention most people would be more than happy to excuse a few Dar curses if they were sent at Voldemort… and he __**didn't **__use any! Tom was killed by a simple fourth year stunner… I think… the incantation was different… what was it? Potens Perturbo… I'm getting off track; it was a new type of stunner. Hmmm… maybe he could use Dark rituals… which ones… It could have been a set-up! That's much better! Let's see… He was the only one to respond to the attack… that could work in our favour! Hmmm… Okay… 'Harold Emmeris' is a Death Eater… want him well placed in the light as a spy… plan an attack on Hogsmeade for him to respond to… he 'defeats' the Death Eaters and Tom turns up… they duel before Harold makes his lucky escape… Harold got jealous of Tom… decides to duel to the death without informing Tom… Tom continues to accidentally-on-purpose miss Harold until it's too late and he's dead… Harold now well placed to take up his 'rightful' position as the next Dark Lord… That's a big lie to tell… everyone will believe it though, I am Albus Dumbledore with all the fancy titles… I am the Leader of the Light! Not Potter! He will never be… but if I don't pull this off I'm in hot water… such a big lie to discredit Potter would not look good if they realise that it __**is **__a lie… _

Severus Snape was also brooding, but his thoughts were entirely different. He couldn't care less whom the Leader of the Light was… he was more worried about the fact that he had let his guard down around a POTTER.

…_My only friend on the staff, Master Harold Emmeris, the one that fixed my classroom… takes some of my younger classes for me even though I know the DADA teacher always has a fuller schedule than me… takes some of the homesick Slytherins when I can't deal with them… let me help him prank the school to lift morale after Death Eater attacks… made that wonderful belt for me… That I OWE A LIFE DEBT TO… that was the spawn of my worst enemy? That was the Gryffindor Golden Boy? POTTER? No… it couldn't have been… Potter was an arrogant brat. Potter could never obtain a potions mastery __**ever… **__let alone in a __**year…**__ alongside other subjects! Potter cannot do Occlumency! Potter could never defeat the Dark Lord! Emmeris could… Harold was… understanding. Funny! He was smart, too… not an arrogant brat! Maybe Harold is still there… it's an extremely elaborate prank… Harold can't be Potter. But… it fits, his story fits. The Harold I knew would never play a prank that involved him pretending to be the lost Golden Boy… and Minerva knew… she was his Head of House. And Harold and Potter share the same teaching style… Albus said that Harold and Potter had trained together… Harold told Albus that himself… Well, he would've, if he is Potter… I'm being foolish. Harold really is Potter. I've been friendly to Potter for half a year! I told Potter about my childhood! Wait- wasn't his similar? He told me… it sounded… worse? This begs thinking about… Golden Boy abused? POTTER abused? _

In Harry's quarters, there was a small party going on with Remus, Moody, Kingsley, Tonks, Minerva, Flitwick and Sprout all celebrating Voldemort's downfall with dessert and Firewhisky which Trixy had supplied.

"I've always liked your quarters, Harry!" said Minerva cheerfully. The other Heads of House rolled their eyes.

"Dumbledore didn't look happy at the staff meeting, did anyone else notice? He was looking at me with a very calculated expression throughout the meeting and when I revealed myself, he looked horrified! I think he's going to try something, I just don't know what… or why…" The other staff members agreed, while Moody snorted.

"Of course he's going to try something! You've just challenged the manipulative old coot's position as Leader of the Light… at 17! We _knew _he was going to set up your battle with him so that the old man could claim the victory as his own, but you've won so publically that he can't do that!" said Moody exasperatedly.

"Dumbledore was going to do that?" asked a very shocked Sprout.

"Yes," replied Minerva tersely.

"What do you think he'll do?" asked Harry anxiously.

"If I was Albus, I'd be claiming you were Dark… don't know how, though…" Kingsley trailed off.

"set-up," grunted Moody.

""Great… '_The Boy-Who-Lived goes Dark!' _Skeeter would love it," groaned Harry.

"Worry about it in the morning, Harry, you can't do anything now. Can I have a tour? You've added another classroom and room since I was a teacher," said Remus.

"Sure," replied Harry a little more cheerfully.

Half an hour later the tour was over and the people that hadn't yet seen it before were impressed. The rest of the night was spent celebrating, although thy soon lost Minerva to the portrait of Gryffindor. When the party was almost over, Harry began to send his worry about Dumbledore's plans to Hogwarts… and he discovered that the old man had planned out loud! He spent some time with the others planning his response before they left late into the night.

The next morning, Harry re-joined the school for breakfast, but went down early to escape any students before he was ready for them. This meant that at 6am, Harry was seated at the staff table, finishing off his grading for the term. Once he decided that it was late enough, he put his grading away and had just begun to eat breakfast when Dumbledore strode to the front of the hall and turned to face the students who were almost all there.

"Silence," he called, and the staff members that had been at Harry's party rolled their eyes and groaned, except Flitwick who gave Harry a tiny nod. "I want everyone to hear this. I, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, formally challenge Harold Emmeris to a duel, on the grounds that he is a Dark Wizard…" he then went on to explain the lie that he had dreamt up the night before, not noticing the subtle signals three of the four heads of house were giving their students. When Dumbledore was finished, he turned to smirk at Harry having heard the whispers that had broken out, not realising that they were bad for him and not Harry. Harry sighed, and stood up.

"My family has never backed down from a formal duel, and neither will I. So, I, Harold James Emmeris formally accept a duel from challenger Albus Dumbledore. However, I am also going to debate the ground on which the duel was declared. I swear on my life and on my magic that I am a Light wizard and the duels that took place against Voldemort and his followers were never set up." There was a pause as the Oath was called up. When everyone was satisfied it was in place, Harry continued.

"Expecto Patronum!" he called and a great silvery stag burst out of Harry's wand.

"As you can see, I am still alive and my magic is intact meaning the Oath is true. If anyone still doubts my standing, you are calling into question my phoenix familiar, Älfya-" There was a burst of flame, and the Golden Phoenix was trilling happily on Harry's shoulder.

"As it was Albus Dumbledore who declared this duel, it is my duty to set the rules and adjudicator. No seconds, as there is no one else capable of continuing for either of us. No Unforgivables, but anything else is allowed. Wandless, elemental and staff magic is permitted- however, we do not aim to kill. The duel is won when the other is physically incapable of causing the other harm. Therefore, merely being disarmed does not count. They may be stunned and bound or have been knocked unconscious to lose. A forfeit is called if the person steps- or falls- off the platform. The duel is also forfeit if a rule is broken. Duelling Master Flitwick, would you consent to be our adjudicator?"

"Duelling Master Emmeris, I consent to the position of adjudicator."

"Albus Dumbledore, you are now free to challenge a rule and or set the time and venue of the aforementioned duel," said Harry who promptly sat down.

"This duel shall take place tomorrow noon in this very hall, Duelling Masters Emmeris and Flitwick," Dumbledore ground out.

"Then I shall see you at noon tomorrow," replied Harry.

"And I also. May the best man win," continued Flitwick. Harry then picked up his grades and strode out the door, inwardly smirking at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore was indeed furious. Potter had managed to prove that he was among the lightest wizards in the world- in front of the entire school! The boy had even gone and registered a Wizard's Oath, which he knew full well was registered in the Department of Mysteries, so even if he did Obliviate the school, his story, which he had so carefully constructed, was useless. And how was he supposed to know Potter was a duelling Master? He had forgotten that the boy had been teaching the rules and proper etiquette to his classes, but _Potter was a Duelling Master? _Since when? He hadn't been counting on Potter knowing the rules; he had planned on setting his own rules and choosing his own adjudicator. This was going to give him a huge disadvantage. He had planned on banning wandless, elemental and staff magic as Potter was clearly proficient at all of them, but he had specifically stated they were allowed! And Flitwick as adjudicator would pose a problem, as he would follow the rules to the letter. That was then he realised that _Potter had been expecting the challenge. _He had planned this! Flitwick had probably even _offered _to adjudicate for him. Dumbledore ground his teeth together. This was not working out as well as he had planned. Potter was going to go into the duel with an advantage over him, and he had already proven himself to be quite capable of beating him in a fair duel. Dumbledore gulped. For the first time in an exceptionally long time, he was scared. Very, very scared.

In Harry's quarters, Harry and Minerva were discussing the upcoming duel. Flitwick was unable to be there as when he had accepted the adjudication position, he was not permitted to contact either of the duellers until it was over.

"Albus is going to try something else, isn't he?" said Minerva.

"I think he will… he looked very angry when I set out the rules and even worse when Filius was named as adjudicator. I think I will request for Ministry officials, but I don't want Albus to know. Can you help me write a letter?"

"Of course!"

"Thanks."

Very soon, the letter was written.

_Greetings, Madam Bones,_

_I am writing to inform you that a formal duel has been called by Albus Dumbledore, stating that I am a Dark Wizard. I called a Wizard's Oath, which I believe is recognise in the Department of Mysteries and called my phoenix familiar Älfya, but the duel still holds. I do not trust the man as he must have spent a long time crafting the lie he told, and would like to call a Ministry Supervision without his knowledge. It would be greatly appreciated. He duel is scheduled for noon tomorrow in the Great Hall of Hogwarts._

_Thank you for your time,_

_Duelling Master Emmeris,_

_Defence Professor_

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

They decided to send the note with Älfya, as it would add credibility to his claim as well as speed up the delivery time which was essential, considering the duel was tomorrow. It also made the note impossible for Dumbledore to intercept. A few minutes later, Älfya was back with Madam Bones' reply.

_Duelling Master Emmeris-_

_You are really earning some impressive titles! As I am sure you know, requests such as yours are common and we would be happy to provide Ministry Supervision. Because of the name of the two involved, We have decided that I will come myself, along with Head Auror Shacklebolt, Member of the Minister's Personal Guard Dawlish, Senior Auror Tonks and Ex-Auror and Auror Potential Scout Moody. _Here, harry laughed and showed Minerva the people involved in the Ministry Supervision. _I do believe your claim- your Oath is indeed registered, and your phoenix- I believe you called her Älfya? She was even nervous around me!_

_To the less formal point of this letter, I have had many notes from my niece Susan about you, and I would like to congratulate you on being 'the best, nicest and fairest professor we've ever had!' –her words, not mine. She particularly sings the praises of your practical lessons, and I believe many people would be extremely happy if you continued to teach next year._

_Good Luck tomorrow,_

_Amelia Bones_

_Head of the DMLE_

"Harry! You've got the _Head _of DMLE on your side, against _Albus! _Congratulations!"

Noon came entirely too quickly for Harry the next day, although the students were apparently all looking forward to the rematch, which was going to be a _proper _duel this time- hardly any of them realised how significant it was- or what was at stake. Harry had spent the morning getting his mind and body ready for the duel- and making sure the Ministry officials made it into the school undetected- which, with Hogwarts' help, was relatively easy.

When Harry made it to the Great Hall, it was to see Minerva and Flitwick working together to get the hall big enough to fit both the duelling platform- and the entire school population along with the few members of the public that had heard about the duel. He could also see Dumbledore waiting half concealed in the same wing as the Ministry officials, although he wasn't worried about them being discovered, as he had the school on his side.

In no time at all, the spectators had filed on and were seated, and Flitwick was recapping the rules and what was at stake. Honour for Harry and loss of titles (as he had lied) for Dumbledore. When he announced the opponents. As he was the 'reigning champion' as he heard a muggleborn 3rd year call it, Harry was to be announced last. He therefore watched as Dumbledore stepped up onto the platform confidently- he wasn't even wearing duelling robes! He bowed to the crowd, and then took his place.

"And now, the Vanquisher of You-Know-Who, 17 year old Master of all Subjects, DADA Professor, Duelling Master Harold Emmeris!" Harry swallowed nervously before squashing all the negative emotions down behind his Occlumency shields. It would not do to show his nerves in front of his students. He smiled at the school before stepping confidently up onto the platform feeling lighter than ever. He had left all his weapons and potions belt in his quarters as he would not need them. He was also wearing his basilisk hide duelling robes as they were the lightest he had- he was not planning on relying on shield charms today! The basilisk hide was also very tough but it didn't look that way, and as a result many people never consider it. Harry took his place and they went through the familiar motions. They saluted- or bowed, in Dumbledore's case- had made their way to their new positions 10ft away from each other and settled into their duelling stances. Harry noticed that Dumbledore had gone for the traditional offensive stance, which would make him weak to attack when they began. Harry himself used a stance taught only to Duelling Masters- which Dumbledore was not. It was designed for easy offence, but was also light making it easy for him to move out of the way of any spells. It also looked impressive, which was an added advantage. Indeed- he had seen a flicker of fear cross Dumbledore's face when he was settled which was incredible considering the man's occlumency. The show of fear gave Harry more confidence.

"3… 2… 1… Begin!" called Flitwick authorotively, and the duel began.

"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Expelliarmus! Incarcerous!" cried Harry.

"Protego! Bombarda! Incendio! Diffindo!" and then they both switched to silent casting. The speed of the duel was intense. Harry could tell that Voldemort was a little more skilled than Dumbledore- and definitely faster, the older man was still a formidable opponent. He knew that he was wasting time showing off, but he had gone almost 6 months without facing a half decent person that was not aiming to kill, and he was enjoying the exercise. Harry flipped out of the way of the curses with ease and sent back twice as much as he got- and maximised his elemental abilities at the same time. Dumbledore on the other hand was getting increasingly frustrated- and it was showing. The older man was covered in minor injuries and was obviously extremely fatigued- but he was yet to cast a curse that would hit Harry. The duel continued on and Harry was enjoying himself so much that he missed the look of rage that was now worn on his opponents face. Dumbledore yelled out a curse and Harry's eyes widened a fraction and he leapt out of the way before sending several stunners at the older man- but he wasn't the only one. Flitwick and all of the Ministry officials had their wands out and mirrored Harry's look of shock. _Crucio- _Dumbledore had used an unforgivable.

The rest of the day flew by very quickly- Dumbledore was taken away to await a trial and Minerva was appointed Headmistress. Flitwick was given the position of Deputy Headmaster, and Harry was made Head of Gryffindor to his amusement- the students didn't know that he had attended Hogwarts. Minerva had decided to keep her role as the transfiguration professor. Harry's favourite moment of the day was when he went to announce his new position to the Gryffindors. He had asked Hogwarts for a quick entrance to the Gryffindor Common room, and a passageway was created behind the portrait of Godric Gryffindor. When he opened it, he found to his amusement that he was standing right next to the stairs leading to the dormitories. He had chuckled, causing the Gryffindors to jump in shock and he began to laugh outright, which made several of the students send him death glares. He quickly told him of his new position before disappearing back to his quarters, still chuckling, although he still triple checked that the passageway was sealed- no reason to give the Gryffindors free entry into his quarters. He shivered at the thought. That house had too many pranksters.

The next morning, Harry took his new spot at the staff table to see that the Daily Prophet had come early. Dumbledore had been important enough to get a same-day-trial, so the front page had a giant picture of an embarrassed Dumbledore and a headline saying; _Disgraced Leader of the Light! Dumbledore sentenced to life in Azkaban! Article on page 2.'_ Harry quickly flipped to the right page and read about the duel, Dumbledore's use of the _Cruciatus, _the arrest, trial and finally his sentence. The article made him realise how frustrated he had made Dumbledore, but it also detailed Dumbledore's plans- he had admitted to quite a lot under veritaserum. He still felt bad for the man. He knew he shouldn't have toyed with him so much, but he had been enjoying the duel.

He was quickly pulled out of his musings when he realised that as a Head of House, it was his duty to hand out the grades for the students in his house, and then at 11, he was one of the teachers assigned to escorting the students that were going home for Christmas to the train.

The rest of the year went smoothly for Harry. He met regularly with Remus and the others. The Order disbanded as both Voldemort and Dumbledore were gone.

Harry slowly revealed himself to the public- and had to spend a few days in hiding when the _Daily Prophet _found out- and discarded the Harold Emmeris disguise. He was now Professor Potter. An added benefit of that was Ron and Hermione worked doubly hard to try and catch up to _Potter._ Harry snickered when he realised what they were doing. _They can try…_

Just before his 18th Birthday, Harry claimed Hogwarts as his birth right, giving him the final say in all important decisions and getting rid of the Board of Governors. He stayed on as the DADA Professor- the curse was broken. Harry was- finally- happy. 


End file.
